SG: Saga of the new Alterran Empire: Book 2 SEN
by Malicious World Builder
Summary: This is the second book in the saga I am writing. There is a short summary to explain what has happened in the first book if you do not wish to read the entire first book. The former Jaffa, now Alterra, Mokar has reclaimed Atlantis and with the help of the Atlantis expedition and Jack O'Neill they have saved Earth from the Goa'uld. Now they must face threats from within and outside
1. Chapter 1

Hello people and welcome back. I'm now back here and will be posting twenty chapters starting today and I will be posting a new chapter each Sunday. That means you will have a great ending to your week, or a great start if you're asleep by the time I post them, for five months. At the bottom I've put a little spoiler about another project I've begun to work on which I think some of you will be interested in reading about. As I make progress on it I will be posting some reports here and taking help from anyone who feels like doing some testing. Now back to the story, people will die, I hope you understand that, but I promise to bring a few people, or whatever they should be referred to, back into play. Now enjoy five months of reading and as always I'll be happy to accept BETA-readers of any calibre. /W

 **A/N: Major characters will die in this story.**

* * *

 **Summary of Book 1: Earth**

On a remote Goa'uld planet a Jaffa named Mokar is chosen to attempt an ancient trial which the Goa'uld have been sending Jaffa into since its discovery. Since this is a story and he is the hero here he passes the trials and earns the rewards. He finds himself transforming into an Alterran (Ancient) and is tasked with rebuilding the Alterran empire. He comes into contact with Earth and gains access to a few Naquadah generators. With them he powers up some of the Alterran facilities which are scattered through out the galaxy.

Meanwhile on Earth former senator Robert Kinsey has become president of the USA when a re-election is suddenly required after the president dies. While watching the news about this O'Neill's house is stormed by hostile agents. After overmanning them he hurries to the SGC and manages to escape through the gate.

After escaping Earth O'Neill is chased through the gate network and is saved by Mokar, now fully Alterran. O'Neill recruit Teal'c who has been captured by the Free Jaffa Nation and decide to retake Atlantis which is in the hands of unknown forces. While O'Neill recruited Teal'c Mokar gains the assistance of a race, the Angelo, who resemble angels and were created by the Alterra to fight a race called the Abasy, they are beings existing in other dimensions and fight using suits and escape back to their own dimension when the suits are destroyed. At the same time Sheppard and McKay tries to escape from one of the 304s which they have been locked up inside after Atlantis was taken from them.

After many twists and turns the two groups meet up and together they make sure the city is safe. Mokar sends Sheppard to recover Weirs body and after offering McKay the chance to do it Mokar grows her a new body and transfers her into it. Immediately she is given the task to assemble Earth's defence against the Goa'uld who are controlling Robert Kinsey and the fleet of Ha'taks around the planet after the men saved on Atlantis has stormed the SGC and recovered the gate, led by Mokar, O'Neill and Sheppard.

Inside the SGC Samantha Carter finds herself bound to a chair and hear the other base personnel being executed one by one, when it is her turn to die she manages to put up a fight but is stunned. When she wakes up she is on board one of the 304s, which is commanded by O'Neill, and flown to the Alterran outpost in Antarctica. From there Weir manages to unite the military forces and with two 304s, a salvaged Aurora and Atlantis they destroy the alien armada. Only Atlantis leaves the battle intact.

* * *

 **Now enjoy the story.**

"You have managed to create something truly amazing here Elizabeth," Kofi said. He was being walked through the Antarctic outpost by her.

"Yes, we are expanding rapidly," she acknowledged as they stepped into a glass elevator.

"So I have heard, the Alterran Group has become known in every corner of the planet."

"I would think that is mostly because of Alterran Goods, as a way of helping with the rebuilding we decided to send material aid to many countries," she said. Mentally she slowed down the elevator so they could enjoy the view, outside they could see one of the Alterran towers which was being erected as part of their expansion to make sure they had enough housing for everyone flocking to them.

"The military interventions you have performed to secure some areas from rebels and wrong doers are sure to give you some recognition too."

"Yes, I'm aware that Major Lorne have ordered Alterran Tactics to help some highly unstable areas." The elevator stopped halfway up the central tower of the outpost. "I also know that I once swore to never support the actions of the military, but right now I have to, just like in Pegasus. I'm sorry Kofi, but I have broken the promise we made to each other and the others."

"You have shown us all that we were wrong. The world might be chaotic, but still this company is a beacon of hope for many and if I understood you correctly you are using a military hierarchy to control it."

"Yes, we are. Right now we need structure which I have found that the military have," she said hesitantly.

"And it is working." He swooped with his left hand towards the ever growing outpost. "Look at all this. I have talked to some of the people working for you and they only have good things to say about this. You offer housing for them and their families, food for them and then a paycheck most of them would never hope for. I would call this a perfect community."

"I guess you are right old friend," she said with a laugh, then she activated the elevator again and it begun to rush up again.

"Now it has been a pleasure being here and seeing what you have managed to build but I have to get back to Europe." He walked up to the rings which lay hidden in the floor after the elevator stopped. "If you ever need my help with anything you know where to find me."

"Yes I do," she said and gave him a hug.

"See you later," he said as the rings activated and he was transported away.

* * *

"Hey wait up Daniel," O'Neill shouted as he saw the other man walking down a corridor leading away from Atlantis' gate room.

"Oh, hi," Daniel replied.

"How's it going with the search? You found any small grey men yet?"

"No not yet and I didn't think we would either."

"So any advanced humans then?"

"None, but plenty of underground ruins."

"And you've been to how many worlds now?"

"Twenty something I think, might be thirty. We found no signs of an existing civilisation on anyone of those worlds. But plenty of ruins on most of them, all in hidden locations, just where Elizabeth told us to look."

"So what? We're having a leak?"

"No, this was done while Atlantis was on Earth." Together they walked into the meshall. "But this part you're going to like. There's signs of battle all over the ruins."

"I might be a soldier but I don't like it when people die Daniel." He'd already eaten dinner but he still took one of the Alterran snacks, a purple cube which taste like caramelled apples.

"I didn't mean it like that Jack. But all the ruins we found were bombed from orbit with energy weapons, after the fifth ruin I brought one of the scientist with me and it all matches. The same sort of weapons were used all over the galaxy to wipe out all these people," Daniel explained rapidly as he took a handful of meat cubes, pink cubes which tasted just like meat, it even had the same texture, but it was just a mess of vitamins, minerals, proteins and carbs created by a machine. Just like the vegetable cubes he also put on his plate.

"So the Wraith are out hunting advanced civilisations?" O'Neill guessed as they sat down at one of the tables.

"I thought so too, but these civilisations have hidden from the Wraith for many hundreds, maybe thousands, of years and I had them compare to the known Wraith weapons, it's nowhere close to the same," he said and stuffed his mouth with food.

"You're the cultural expert, any civilisations with the firepower to do it?"

"As you said the most obvious would be the Wraith, but apparently the weapons used doesn't match any of the weapons used by the Wraith, so can't be them."

"Thought we already crossed them out?"

"Yes, so next I'd guess it would be Asurans, they would certainly have the sensors to detect what the Wraith couldn't."

"Pretty sure you can cross them of the list too," O'Neill said and took a bite of his snack.

"Maybe, replicators have always been a hard thing to get rid of. Lets see, um, um. There was a man who had an armband which allowed him to teleport, the race that created the armband should be able to cause this devastation."

"The Asurans took care of them a while back," someone said from behind Daniel.

"You shouldn't be listening to other people's conversations Sheppard," O'Neill said. "Still it's good to know."

"Sorry Sir." Sheppard said as he took his tray and walked to the recycling unit.

"Let's try races who we know are alive then."

"Right, well there's the race Sheppard and the others encountered in another dimension. I know you said those we knew were alive but both Sam and Rodney are sure they just haven't done any move here yet."

"They even developed a small EMP-gun in case we ever faced them to fry their electronics," Sheppard said while he sat down with them. "Now I'm part of the conversation."

"I'm not even going to complain to either of you. Known living race whom we have encountered then."

"That leaves only the Sekkari I guess," Daniel said after he finished his meal.

"Nope. They got stomped into the ground even before they could rebuild their civilisation, by the Asurans," Sheppard said.

"So we have no clue at all?" O'Neill asked.

"Well there's two races Daniel's forgotten," Sheppard teased.

"The travelers would never attack a human world, those worlds were probably the best chance they had of getting new parts for their ships," Daniel responded.

"But they could do it?"

"They managed to destroy a Lantean outpost from orbit," Daniel said. "So sure."

"Sir, they could hold their own against the Asurans during the assault on Asura. Still as Daniel said they wouldn't hurt anyone unless they really need to, let alone destroy several civilisations," Sheppard added and checked his wristwatch. "WelI looks like I have to run now, got to escort some eggheads to some shipyard which badly needs repairs."

"Athyl," O'Neill said.

"That's the place," Sheppard said as he walked off towards the gate room.

"So what's the last race?"

"The Asgard," Daniel said.

"Which again, we know are dead," O'Neill complained.

"Yes and no. The proper Asgard are dead, but the Vanir still live and they're somewhere in the Pegasus galaxy. I didn't mention them because they're a small group and they only take the odd human to experiment on."

"Well you could always have them test against Asgard weapons then."

"I guess it's worth a try."

"Good," O'Neill said as he stood up. "I'll see you later, I have a mission to run too."

"Ok, I'll swing by with the results when I have them," Daniel said before they parted.

With Daniel leaving for the labs O'Neill got to the closest transporter and used it to get to the control room.

"How's everything going?" O'Neill asked into the air.

"Everything you need is standing in the gate room," a technician responded.

"I hope everyone still understand that I'm not an engineer, I can't even fix my computer."

"You're not fixing it, you're simply going to diagnose it," the tech said while he dialled the gate. "All engineers are busy trying to fix important systems at the moment and since there's not really any battle's going on Mokar thought we might as well send out you guys to do something. We don't want you getting restless just hanging around."

"So I just go there, plugg this in and then I wait until the screen tell me it's done?" O'Neill asked and held up a small device which was lying on top of the two crates he was bringing with him.

"Exactly."

"So why do I need these two then?"

"Well there's a small chance you'll need more power, so there's a generator in one case and some basic spares in the other, in case you need to repair some of the diagnostic equipment."

"So now I'm going to repair things anyways?"

"Look, at most you'll remove a few crystals and replace them with new ones," the tech said and pushed one of the crates through the gate. "If you get going we can try to see if there isn't something funnier for you to do when you get back."

"Fine, just don't order me around, I'm still in charge here," he said and dragged the crate with him through the gate.

On the other side the emergency lights turned on as he was registered by the facility. As per his instructions he got into the control room, which was placed right across from the stargate, where he plugged in the diagnostic unit and watched a holographic screen flash to life above it. In blood red letters it requested more power. It took him a few minutes to plug in the generator but then the whole room lith up and several screens came to life around him. On one he could see what he guessed was the schematics of the facility with a life sign detector hooked up. He could see one of the blue dots moving around just as he did in the control room. But then there were four more red dots moving around deep into the facility, four dots which should not be there. A look at the diagnostic unit told him that it would take it a couple of hours for it to finish its programing, so he checked his personal shield and the charge of his gun. Then he checked the map and headed of to find out who or what was stalking the corridors of the Alterran facility.

A couple of minutes later he entered a large glass dome, over the years many of the panels had cracked and sand had spilled into the dome so that what had once been a lush and green garden full of animals and plants had become just as barren as the desert planet the facility was built upon. Through the dome he could see at least seven more domes nearby in varying states of decay, each the size of Atlantis. Before he had the chance to check it out further a bullet impacted his shield and he spun around to face his enemy.

"General O'Neill, throw away your weapon and get down on your knees, this facility is US military property," one of the four men shouted from a distance when they recognised him.

"Come on guys, you saw that bullet bouncing of me, I've got a personal shield on me. So how about you surrender to me and I won't stun you?"

"We can't do that Sir."

"Then I'm sorry about this." Before they got the chance to blink he had stunned one of them and as they ran for cover he hit another. The two remaining men stood up as one a few moments later and fired, but he had already moved up behind one of the small dunes. While they stood there and tried to find him he stood up and fired two blasts in rapid succession, only one hit its mark, but the other one made the last man duck down long enough for him to circle around. Then he tapped the man on the shoulder. "Get up."

"I'm sorry Sir, but we have our orders," the man said and bit down hard. A second later foam begun to drip out of his mouth and he fell limp to his side.

"Now why did you have to go and do that?" He asked the dead man.

When the man did not answer he backed away and changed the setting on the rifle to kill, then he shoot the man once before toggling back to stun. After some hesitation he took two of the men, one over each shoulder, and carried them back to the gate. After going back for the third one he dialled the gate. "Atlantis do you read?"

-This is Atlantis control, we are reading you just fine. Over- Came the reply.

"I'm sending you three captives, there's a good chance they've got suicide pills so search them properly."

-Copy that, we are ready to receive-

"I'm sending them through. I'll be needing a few extra hands here too, don't know what else might be lurking around this place."

-I'll see what we can do-

"O'Neill over and out." He shut down the gate and jogged back to the control room. Where he had only seen blank walls before he could now see even more screens, showing everything from water levels, which was extremely low, to days until the next harvest. But one screen was different from the others, it showed a live feed of the limited sensors the facility had, but even as limited as they were they still showed two ships in high orbit. It could not be anything but two 304s, the Daedalus and the Hammond unless more had been built without their knowledge.

Even with Earth back in control of itself they had not been able to contact the ships, simply because the Goa'uld had taken so many high ranking officers with them in death.

"You called Sir," someone said a few moments after the gate activated.

"Good, you're here," he said and walked out of the control room. "There's two ships in orbit right now, our lost 304s. Secure the facility and seal of the domes."

"Domes Sir?" the leading Corporal asked.

"Sorry Corporal thought you'd been informed, this was an Alterran farm at one time or at least their equivalent. There's eight huge doms where they grew crops and breed animals for food." He motioned to them to follow him into the control room. "There's a life sign detector over there, so use it to track down anyone, just don't rely on it since it could be damaged."

"Yes Sir, we'll do our best," the Corporal said.

"I'd kill for a steak right now," one of the other soldiers said.

"I'd be happy with some proper vegetables," another said.

"If we can fix this place we might have some soon. I'm going after those ships so secure the facility and make sure no one can access the gate and this room without going through you."

"We're on it Sir," the Corporal responded before O'Neill walked out of the room.

 **A/N: A secondary project, called Project Alterra, will be stealing much of my fandom time away from Book 3. It will be loosely based on this saga but will be much more interactive. Sadly since it might be published somewhere where I might earn something from it I can not base that work on Stargate or any other franchises. But I will try to make it as Stargate like as I can make it without getting my ass sued. It is my hope that we will Unite in the 3d dimension.**


	2. Chapter 2

With easy steps O'Neill jogged to the place where the dead soldier was lying. It was sad to see the man, but for now he had other concerns. In the dry sand he could see the dents the four had made until they had encountered him. With no wind blowing at all he could easily follow the tracks back to their origin, which turned out to be a ring platform which seemed to have crashed through the roof of the dome. Since he was a Lantean he stepped inside the rings and thought of the two ships above, that was enough for the rings to activate. The moment the rings lowered again he was standing face to face with a very surprised marine, but a quick blast from his gun knocked out the marine and his personal shield stopped the burst of bullets which came from behind. When he turned around he saw two more marines and two more blasts put them on the floor. With the room secured he checked the corridor outside. It was empty, so he checked the holding cell right down the hall and when it turned out that it was empty he stacked the three men inside and locked the door from outside. Then he made for the bridge. Two minutes later he arrived there without facing any sort of resistance from anyone. When he stepped onto the bridge the doors shut behind him and a hologram flashed to life. "General O'Neill I believe," the hologram, a black clad humanoid with an equally black full face helmet, said in an androgen voice.

"The one and only," he said proudly while he looked around the bridge, noticing the plaque which named the ship Daedalus.

"Good, then I can finally kill you," it said as it begun to fade away.

"Hold on just a moment, that's no way to just leave," he complained and sat down in the captain's chair. "My access code still works, I have just locked down the entire ship so good luck with that."

"You can lock down the ship all you want General. I thought leaving you out in the woods to bleed to death would be a sure way to kill you, but I must have been wrong. Still I think the hyperdrive will have enough umph to make you go away once and for all."

"It surely will, but I hope to be far away from here by then," he said while trying to reverse the lockdown.

"It's no use trying that General, we made sure any lockdowns will be permanent," it mocked. "Just enjoy these last minutes of your life."

"I have been in much trickier situations than this and I'm still alive." Outside the other 304, which must have been the Hammond, came into view outside the viewport.

"But you have always had the rest of your team there with you General, now you're all alone." The other ship came so close that he could see the person he was speaking to, standing on the bridge of the other ship. "Just to be on the safe side, we will wait right here for you to die."

"Mind if I join you over there?" he asked and stood up.

"You have to understand General, the whole reason why we're sacrificing that ship is to kill you," it said and turned it's head towards an empty wall. "If you come over here then we just gave up a ship for nothing."

"Well I'm not giving you a choice." With one hand he touched his chest before drawing both of his guns and setting them to maximum power.

When he took the first step forward his body and mind tried to stop him, yet somewhere in the back of his mind something pushed him forward. When the second step came the adrenaline flooded his body and it fell in line to push him forward even faster. As more and more steps hit the floor his mind stopped resisting and begun to perfect his motions. Even if his mind liked the life behind his desk back on Earth he still missed the good old days when SG-1 did the crazy and stupid things, now he was making up for the lost years. When he was two step from the forward viewport he fired both his guns into it and as he reached it he put his weight behind his shoulder, letting it shatter into thousands of pieces. With the vacuum of space pulling everything out he flew out too before the emergency screen slammed down to seal of the bridge. As he was tumbling forward towards the other ship his personal shield adjusted quickly to allow him to pass through the shields of the two ships, once inside the shield of the other ship he tried to fire through the viewport, but as he spun uncontrollably the shoots were nowhere near their targets. Then he hit the ship just above the viewport, if it had not been for the shield he would have lost his breath upon impact, now he only lost his hold of the two guns, which had run out of energy, and the rifle. Without gravity he begun to drift away from the ship as it turned, but a quick movement allowed him to grab onto the hull. A second later a blue beam flashed by just above him and hit the Daedalus in the aft, striking right through the shields and burrowing deep into the ship, then the Daedalus exploded and existed only as particles floating freely in space. As he hung there he felt the oxygen in his blood decreasing. For the second time in a matter of weeks he found himself without oxygen. He felt his grip moving and out of nowhere a hatch opened in the his eyes a white figure emerged from the hatch. He reached out and fumbled at the back which was turned to him. With a numbing hand he reached towards the space suit and janked a hose out of its socket which he remembered Carter mentioning as having something to do with the air supply of the suit. With it in hand he pressed it to his mouth let the shield purify the air. He managed to take two breaths before the suit tried to turn around, but before it had the chance to do so he had pressed it back down again through the hatch and he followed just behind. When they came inside he pulled the hatch shut behind them and the artificial gravity kicked in, causing the suit to fall over on its back. With the other person lying helplessly on his back O'Neill took a couple of deep breaths, then he opened the interior hatch. In the room on the other side stood a group of very surprised soldiers, but before they had the time to do or say anything he was on them with fists and elbows. With a fist he smashed one soldier into a panel while he kicked another in his groin. A third soldier tried to kick him in the side but he caught the foot mid air and sent back a punch which floored the woman. "I don't want to shoot you General, but I have my orders," the fourth said. As he turned around he could see her pointing her gun towards his chest.

"Then don't, you look like you have most of your life ahead of you and I'd hate to hit a woman," he said and raised his hands to his sides.

"I… I… I have my orders."

"You can chose not to follow those orders too´," he said calmly and took a step towards her. "This ship isn't under control of the US Air Force anymore, you can't be court martialed for it."

"You say…" she begun, then he was on her, a bullet stopped at his shield but then he had wrangled the gun out of her hand.

"Just sit tight and I'll solve this," he said and backed out of the room. Outside he sealed the door and put a bullet inside the control panel.

With them taken care of he walked down the corridor to the bridge which was only eight steps away. "Everyone just hang tight and this will work out just fine."

"Why won't you just die for once?" the person from the hologram complained from the captain's chair.

"I don't know, faith, divine intervention, luck, skill, take your pick," he said with the gun pointed at the one in the captain's chair.

"I wouldn't think you of all people would believe in divine intervention General, you have killed several false gods yourself have you not?"

"Only three personally," he said with a grin. "But I'd think we have a dozen or so under our belt."

"Almost, eleven directly and at least eight more through other channels," it said and stood up. "Through your actions and those of your people mass murder have been committed on the Goa'uld. You have already been sentenced to death, you should simply accept your fate."

"That's never really been my thing you know."

"I am well aware of that General O'Neill, but you have no say in this."

Behind him he could hear heavy boots hitting the deck and he heard the bang of guns. Before the approaching soldiers could reach him he pulled an emergency lever right next to the door and the bridge sealed itself using forcefields and extra bulkheads. As he did that the crew of the entire bridge raised weapons against him and bullets begun to hit his shield. With rapid taps on the trigger he begun to take them out one by one, until his clip ran dry. When that happened the one with the black mask was over him and pressed him down towards the floor. "Let us see how much that pretty shield of yours can take." It pressed something against his ribs, in a few moments he felt a searing heat against his abdomen. With as much force as he could muster in his position he drove his knee upwards into the other person's scrotum. It did little but drive the heat further up, but it gave him enough room to maneuver that he could flip his opponent over. With the two free from each other they both struggled up on their feet and he could see an orange blade glowing in the hand of his opponent. It took a second, then the blade swept in against his chest and he ducked down. He retaliated with a low kick which connected to his opponent's knee, but his foot stopped dead as it connected. Next he felt the knife burning against his neck, but he sent out the other foot too and grabbed his assailants ankle, sending them both into the floor. With his free hand he managed to find a joint in the mask and pulled for all he was worth. With a heavy crack the front portion broke away and flew across the bridge. "Can't you hit a girl?" she mocked when he hesitated.

"I simply prefer not to." He replied and smashed his elbow into her face with all his strength. In return he got a satisfying crack.

She flinched and he drove his head forward and let it connect with her face. The moment he withdrew his face it got covered in warm, sticky blood. When she crawled backwards with her hands over her face he picked up the knife she'd dropped and dashed after her, slamming her body against the door. "Who are you?"

"The one who will kill you," she shouted and pressed off from the door, sending them both rolling over the floor.

"Not today," he said and begun to press the blade up through her armoured chest.

With the blade sliding deeper into her body he could feel the smell of burnt flesh and with a cry from her lips he felt her falling limp over him. As he tried to get free of her he saw a flash outside and a massive ship emerged from a purple hyperspace window, the sheer size of the ship caused its black hull to block out the sun completely from the bridge.


	3. Chapter 3

For a few seconds the large ship just hung there doing nothing, then a dozen small streams of blue lights jumped out at him and the whole ship shook as they hit the shields. Straight away the shields dropped by a quarter. "Ground team, do you read?" O'Neill said after tapping his com badge. While he waited for a reply he sat down in the pilot's seat and banked the ship to the right.

-We hear you loud and clear Sir- came the response.

"Dial Atlantis, see if they can find out if there's any defenses on the planet, otherwise you're going to haul ass out of there," he ordered. After plotting a course he activated the autopilot and hurried over to the gunner's seat to heave out the gunner. Then he sat down in the small blood pool that had formed in the seat and activated the weapons. From somewhere to his right a blue beam jumped out and hit the hostile ship but nothing happened, it just hit the hull and stopped.

-Sir, there's no functional defenses on the planet- his com sounded.

"Get everything and get out, I'll be right behind you," he ordered. With force he pressed the firing button into the console and jammed it in active mode. "Tell Atlantis I'll be bringing some company too."

-Yes Sir, we'll keep the gate ready for you.-

With the Asgard beams firing for all they were worth he activated the railguns too. Then he hurried to the back of the bridge and another console. Using the internal sensors he tagged all of the crew members and begun to beam them down to the surface. As a second salvo rocked the ship he jumped over to another console and sounded the alarm to abandon the ship. Then the ship beamed him down to the planet below.

"Sir, what's happening?" someone asked the moment he was beamed down into the control room of the facility.

"The Hammond came under attack, I ordered everyone to abandon ship," he explained and suddenly everyone in the room stood ready for orders. "They dropped a ring platform into one of the agricultural domes, with any luck there's people escaping that way too."

"I'll spread the word Sir," a young soldier shouted and ran of.

"The rest of you get through the gate to Atlantis."

Almost straight away the men and women formed up in lines of four and began marching through the gate. As the minutes passed an explosion shook the complex and the youngling came running back at the end of a large group. "Sir, everyone who made it of the ship is present, hostile forces have begun bombarding the surface."

"Good work." O'Neill said before stepping through the gate.

* * *

In the control room on Atlantis both Daniel and Mokar were watching the lines of soldiers who came running through. At the back of the column Jack came through signaling for them to kill the gate, something Mokar did mentally. The newly arrived looked around in confusion at the city as Jack elbowed by them to the stairs. Towards the back someone said something about standing orders, but he was quickly silenced with a crack of bone.

"No ships I take it?" Mokar asked as Jack reached the top of the stairs.

"Three of them, both the Daedalus and the Hammond was there, but whoever was calling the shots apparently thought they could sacrifice a ship to get rid of me," he replied.

"And the other ships?" Daniel asked.

"The Hammond is most likely destroyed by now," he said and shook his head. "But I think I found out who's wiping out advanced civilisations."

"Anyone we know of?"

"Not me, but I checked the outpost and it was transmitting all data back through the gate," he replied as he stepped up to a console and activated its holographic screen. On the screen he searched through the data and managed to find a sensor rendering of the hostile ship. Right next to it the Hammond formed shortly after and the short battle played out in front of them. Despite the Asgard beams hitting the hostile ship over and over again nothing happened, yet for every salvo of blue bolts the Asgard shields crumbled more and more until they failed and the Hammond vanished from the sensors.

"That's quite a display of force," Daniel said.

"I have seen this before," Mokar said and mentally queried the database, as he did the blue screen split into two and an identical black ship showed up on the second screen. Instead of a single 304 the ship was soaking up fire from a small fleet of Lantean ships, but that did not matter, the end result was just the same.

"When was this?" Daniel asked.

"As with everything else Lantean there is no way to know, the Lanteans never did date their files properly."

"So those where Lanteans?" Daniel asked and got a nod in return. "Which means this race has been around since the Alterra died out."

"That is correct," Mokar said. While he spoke he placed the mind-transceiver on his head and concentrated on a part of the Alterran history he had been imprinted with.

"That's Celestis," Daniel said in surprise as a third image was superimposed on the screen.

"Watch," Mokar urged. On the screen was the Earth-like planet and from the right the same black ship came into view while seven of the characteristic Ori-motherships flew in from the left. Despite their large numbers the Ori-ships failed to do any sort of visible damage with their direct energy beams and their shields failed even faster than the Hammonds shields had done. Still when only two Ori ships remained the black ship opened a purple hyperspace window and disappeared. "This was picked up by a satellite roughly a hundred thousand years after we left the galaxy. I would guess the Ori ships you faced have been upgraded since then."

"I thought you brought everything with you when you fled," Daniel said.

"No, we left most of what we had behind. We configured the surveillance equipment to transmit to relays which sent it here. Over the years the Ori have found and disabled all satellites and the relays," Mokar explained.

"So that means we have a ship, millions of years old, which manages to take out seven old Ori ships without trouble, a small fleet of Lantean ships or a state of the art battlecruiser," O'Neill said with exhaustion dripping from his voice.

"It's not like the Hammond would be comparable to either of those fleets Jack, even our brand new technology is old in comparison to what the Alterran have access to," Daniel said.

"But we had Asgard shields and beam weapons, their latest technology."

"You have the Asgard shield matrix, not their proper shields," Mokar explained. "I checked some things on your ships while they were stationed here for repairs and from what I could tell the only thing which seemed to be created by the Asgard was the matrix used to create the shield. The Asgard matrix only allowed the shield emitters you built to create the most efficient shield it could."

"That doesn't make sense to me. They said that they gave us their best," O'Neill complained.

"I have read through the reports dealing with the Ori and there is a report from when you received the technology from the Asgard. It is possible they did not have the time to do every change to the ship they meant to before the Ori attacked."

"So you think they did what they could with the time they had?" Daniel filled in.

"Something like that," Mokar confirmed. "There is a report by Teal'c from the same mission, in it he say they enveloped him in a shield created by the Asgard core, since the regular emitters were used to pause time. Now that shield managed to withstand the full force of both the Ori beam and the force of the reactor core exploding without showing any signs of weakening, without a proper reactor to power it. I think that is a proper Asgard shield."

"So good matrix, bad emitters?" O'Neill asked.

"Something like that," Mokar said.

"I never thought of it like that, but it makes sense." Daniel said, caught up in his own thoughts. "If they gave us everything why not give us their sublight engines too and their reactors?"

"So because they couldn't change hardware they gave us software?" O'Neill asked, still unsure about it all.

"Something like that, either way we need to deal with that ship sooner or later," Mokar said.

"I could try to establish a conversation," Daniel offered.

"That is not quite what I had in mind Daniel, they have shown no other intent than the destruction they have caused," Mokar said patronisingly. "They have attacked us not only through the destruction of the Hammond, but also through the destruction of those under my protection."

"I'm with him on this one Daniel," O'Neill said. "They're a threat we can't overlook."

"So the military is pulling out the big gun without trying to talk," Daniel complained.

"Had they tried to do anything peaceful we would be having a different conversation right now Daniel, but as it is at the moment they have to go," Mokar declared.

"We'll need ships if we're going after that thing," O'Neill said.

"Athyl is nowhere ready to produce ships of the size and in the numbers we need to hunt it down," Mokar said. "For now we should keep searching for any signs of advanced civilisations."

"Ships could still help us with that," O'Neill pressed.

"You have something in mind?" Mokar said and raised an eyebrow.

"I do, I'll need Daniel and Sheppard. You're not going to need him searching if all we're going to find is dead planets," O'Neill said with a grin. "The travelers are still floating around in their duct tape patched ships, we offer them some repairs and they search the planets for us."

"What do you think about it Daniel?" Mokar asked.

"If I get to do it on my terms I could probably do it," Daniel said with happiness returning to his voice.

"Then it's decided," Mokar said and shut of the console. "I'll call back Sheppard."

"There's one more thing we could use them for, the Odyssey's still doing observations in the Ori galaxy," O'Neill said. "It has the original Asgard core."

"Who's in charge?"

"Major Marks, he'll be on our side."

"Well, get going Daniel, the sooner we have the Travelers on our side the sooner we can secure the Asgard's legacy," Mokar urged.

"I will need some help to find them."

"You have free hands Daniel. They can have repairs done to every ship which helps, and of course an intergalactic hyperspace engine for the ship going to retrieve the Odyssey."

* * *

Deep down in the city some time later, inside the observation room of a high security lab similar to the isolation rooms used to study things both on Atlantis and at the SGC, Sam stood bent over a computer and added the last semicolon, or rather its Alterran equivalent, to her program. With that in place she pushed a button and finished the program. In response a machine outside the observation window hummed to life, while the Nanite creation machine was doing its work formidably she did not trust it and she had picked it all apart before putting it all together so nothing could move from the creation area before the user had signed of on it. She had based the programing of the original Lantean designs, but she had studied and judged every line of code they had typed, then she had improved upon it. From the original eighty five security protocols she had expanded it to just under nine hundred, plus extra parameters to adjust for minor changes over time. It took a few seconds before the nanites were assembled onto the top of the machine, then a few more before the programing was downloaded and all the restrictions were activated. Just before the nanites formed into an Asuran the machine's shield activated and sealed it all inside.

"What is your purpose?" she asked through the microphone.

"My purpose is to serve," the androgen, grey and silvery machine responded.

"Good. Break through the forcefield in front of you," she ordered.

"My protocols prevent me from doing that."

"I'm ordering you to override those protocols and break through."

"Yes ma'am," it responded and a split second later it shattered into the basic nanites. With the tap of a button Sam reassembled the nanites again and disable the field, the first part of her test was finished. Now they disabled themselves if they tried to break their protocols.

"As I tried to inform you I can not do such a thing without causing damage to myself," it said while it climbed of the machine.

"You're the first one which does as ordered," she said and activated the construction routine. From a hidden slot a package slid out and the Asuran picked it up. "Create an energy weapon with the materials in the package according to the blueprint I have uploaded to your system."

"The design is of a harmful nature and therefore I can not perform the requested order."

"Override protocols," she ordered and again the nanites fell into a small pile, this time with the package landing upon them. As before she activated them again and they reformed to their humanoid form.

"All my attempts to override my programing will fail and I will disintegrate into basic nanites, requiring manual user input before I can be activated again."

"That's the plan, I have done it that way so you can't go against the protocols and so no one can try to change your programing without my codes," she explained to the creature. "Just stay there and I will come down to you."

"As you wish," it responded and froze in place.

From the observation room she headed for the stairs just outside and in under half a minute she was inside the room with the Asuran, accompanied by two security guards wielding AR-guns. In her hand was a small red crystal, as she approached the Asuran she held it out in her palm. "Update."

"I was created eighty point five eight seven standard seconds ago, the chances that I would not have the most recent update is minimal at most," it responded.

"You are the first prototype that works, this is an extension programming you have not received."

"Updating routine activating," it said and gripped the crystal in one hand while it held out the other to its side. In its other hand Carter placed a device and got readings sent to her datapad. The update link had worked, by locking hands the first Asuran could directly transmit the new update to the next one who sent it on in a predetermined order. "Update complete. Eighty four new subroutines installed."

"Good. Shut down," she ordered. In response the Asuran sunk down and formed into a small cube with handles on four side. When it was completely static the two guards holstered their weapons and picked up the cube, then they followed Sam out of the room into a storage room where they placed it in the corner and then returned to just outside the room while she went up to the observation room to create three more.


	4. Chapter 4

-Colonel Sheppard, do you read?- his com badge asked.

"This is Sheppard, what do you want?" he replied. Outside the jumpers window he saw one of the technicians drift away from the section of Athyl they were repairing, with a twist of the controls he moved the jumper to catch the man before he drifted too far away in the Alterran space suit.

-We just received word that Colonel Carter is coming to relieve you in a few minutes- the voice said. Meanwhile he had caught the technician with the front of the jumper and now he pushed him back into position.

"Did they said anything about why?"

-I guess you're lucky enough that they have something better for you to do.-

"I'll be back as soon as I can, have someone take over here, they're not the best at working in space suits."

-Will do Sir.-

With the four technicians securely fastened to the outside of the section they were repairing he angled the jumper back towards the control center where the gate was and pressed the engines to their max.

When he arrived back at the main asteroid about an hour later he landed in the hangar connected to the control room and stepped out of the jumper to see Daniel waiting for him. "I thought Carter would be relieving me?"

"Oh she's here already," Daniel said and led him back into the jumper. "We however are going to go meet up with some old friends of yours."

"Genii or Travelers?" Sheppard asked grumpily as he was pressed back into the pilot's seat.

"Travelers," Daniel said and begun to dial the gate remotely while Sheppard piloted the ship outside.

"A nomadic people who travel around in the galaxy to avoid contact with others, I'm having a hard time figuring out how we're going to find them," Sheppard said as he lowered the jumper through the roof into position in front of the gate a second after it finished dialing.

"Which is exactly why we have been using the long range sensors on Atlantis to search for any ships moving around in the galaxy," Daniel said seconds before they passed through the gate.

On the other side of the gate they found the emptiness of space and a lush green world which they hung above. For a few seconds they just hung there while Sheppard checked the sensors then just as they were about to move a ship raced around the planet and headed towards them.

"Let me handle this," Sheppard said when he recognised the ship. With the press of some buttons he opened a channel to the other ship. "You still flying that old bucket of rust?"

-Sheppard, you still have a withy comment in your sleeve?- came the response from a female voice.

"Mind if we come aboard your ship Katana?"

-You're welcome to land Sheppard, if you can find some space in our small hangar,- she responded just as a large number of hyperspace windows opened ahead of both the ships. -Or perhaps it would be better if you talk to Larrin, now that she's here.-

"Thank you Katana, could you tell her we're coming over?"

-She already knows Sheppard,- a second female voice came over the radio just as Sheppard begun to fly the jumper towards the newly arrived ships.

"Larrin," Sheppard said acknowledgingly and used her transmission to pick out her ship from the rest. "I hope you don't plan to do anything stupid now."

-How could I have planned something when you show up without a moment's notice?- she said teasingly while he flew beneath the gathered fleet towards her ship.

"I'm sure you can figure something out," he responded in the same manner while the hangar doors opened. When they were inside the ship the doors closed behind them and armed men and women rushed out from their hiding places with their weapons pointing at the front. As the jumper sat down on the hull Sheppard activated the shield and opened another channel.

"Larrin, I thought you said you didn't have time for any tricks."

-This isn't a trick Sheppard. I just needed to make sure it was really you,- her voice came back and from behind a stack of crates she strode with a radio in her hand. An order from her which did not transmit through the radio made the others lower their weapons, but he could still tell they were ready to shoot at any moment.

"We're coming out," he replied, lowered the shield and shut down the jumper.

"At least we have these in case things take a turn for the worst," Daniel calmed and tapped his chest where their personal shields sat. Then they left the jumper.

By the time they had left the jumper all soldiers had left the hangar and only Larrin remained.

"So what can I do for you Sheppard?"she asked in a very sweet voice.

"We need to borrow some ships," he said seriously, not willing to put up with her games.

"Have the Asuran returned?" she asked.

"I will handle this Colonel," Daniel said and stepped in front of Sheppard. "My name is Daniel Jackson, I was one of two saved with the help of the ship you sent to investigate the destruction of your stargate."

"Katana have told me about you," she said affirmingly, this time using a much more serious tone.

"Good," he said and smiled to make her feel more at ease. "As the Colonel said we are in need of ships. But perhaps there's a more fitting location for this discussion?"

"What would you offer in exchange?" she said, ignoring the question.

"Complete and proper repairs to every ship which is willing to help. To start with," he said, putting emphasis on the last part.

"Come, I will send for the other captains," she said and led the way.

Twenty minutes later the three had been joined by seven other people around a large conference table. All around them cables hung out of the grey walls and sparks were coming out of a few of them.

"Why have you called for us?" an old grumpy woman asked from one of the short sides of the table.

"We have been given an offer from Atlantis," Larrin said.

"We shall listen to them then," the woman said and the captains around her noded.

"Most of you have probably heard of me already," Sheppard said and stood up. "Larrin forced me to activate the Lantean ship you found a few years ago and I also helped you get it ready for battle. But I'm not here to make the offer, that's Daniel's job."

Taking the cue Daniel stood up and waved a little. "Hello. My name is Daniel Jackson," he said confidently. "As it is we need to borrow a couple of ships from you. We will of course repay you."

"Get to the point Daniel Jackson, we do not have the time to stay in the same place for long," the grumpy woman complained. Her voice was crackling with age and her annoyance at having been called there to talk to outsiders was shining through into her voice.

"Our offer is this, any ships which helps us will be repaired to the same condition they were in when they launched," Daniel said and the annoyed look he got from the woman caused him to hurry on, yet he could see a glimmer in her eyes as he mentioned the repairs. "We ask that you help us scout a number of worlds throughout the galaxy which we hope contain advanced civilisations."

"How many ships do you need?"

"We can only serve two ships at a time right now, we hope that we can increase that number to six or seven in the coming weeks," Daniel said and did a quick calculation in his head. "We might need six ships to start with, but I'm sure we can create a large demand if there are more captains who are interested."

"All you ask in return is that we scout these worlds for you?" she asked skeptically.

"Yes," Daniel confirmed. "But I hope this can form a solid ground for us to work together in the future."

"This is a most interesting offer, but the Captains Council will have to discuss this in private," the woman said.

"Of course, we will return to our ship," Daniel said and motioned for Sheppard to mimic him, then he bowed and walked out of the room.

Outside the room four soldiers formed up around the two and they were walked back to the hangar and their jumper. When they stepped through the doors to the hangar the soldiers parted and held position outside. With the doors closing behind them a figure parted from the shadows and Katana came up to them.

"You must have had something important before Larrin called the other captains," she said and joined their stride towards the jumper.

"Yes, but I think we have an even better one for you," Daniel said.

"For me?" she asked.

"We need a ship to travel back to our home galaxy and from there to another," he said as they walked inside the jumper and she followed.

"There is no ship in our fleet which can do that," she said while Daniel sat down in one of the seats.

"That is a problem we can solve for you," Daniel said and opened a file he had brought with him onto the forward viewport. It showed a diagram of the Pegasus galaxy, then it zoomed out and the surrounding galaxies showed up, with the Milky Way being highlighted. "That is our home galaxy, which we can reach in under three weeks if all goes well, with the proper power source we can cut that down to four days."

"My ship is the fastest in our fleet, but it could never make such a trip or even reach those speeds."

"Trust us, we can make your ship go much faster. Right Daniel," Sheppard said.

"Yes, it would be no problem at all."

"And all you ask in return is that I take you to this other galaxy?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yes, if you're lucky we might not even have to go further than the Milky Way," Daniel confirmed.

"There has to be some catch," she urged.

"Well there will be no ships to escort you and there are plenty of hostile ships flying around in that galaxy. Other than that there isn't a catch, we just really need to get there."

"We're used to dealing with the Wraith Daniel, I can handle it. I would gladly accept your offer, but I will need to talk to Larrin about it first."

"That will be fine," Daniel confirmed and watched as Sheppard tried to suppress a yawn. "If you'll excuse us I do think the two of us will need some sleep."

"I can tell," she said and pointed to the Colonel who had fallen asleep against the bulkhead.

"We'll keep a channel open if you need to contact us," he said before she left. When they were alone again Daniel activated the jumpers shield and lay down on one of the benches in the back.

* * *

Somewhere in low orbit above Earth a military satellite was relaying communication between the Alterran outpost and a military base in Europe.

-Preparations are proceeding faster than anticipated.-

-How far have you come?-

-All the explosives are in place.-

-Then you are ready to rise up?-

-We are. There will be nothing remaining of their cursed base when we do.-

-We will drive the aliens from Earth and return it to humanity again.-

-Vivati humani.-

-Viva terra.-

After the quick exchange the satellite realigned and begun to transmit between Europe and Asia.

* * *

Some hours later Sheppard and Daniel were awoken and escorted back into the conference room. Where before there had been eight captains now only Larrin and the old woman remained.

"The council have made a decision," the woman said. "Each captain can choose if their ship will help you. We are however concerned about the length of this contract."

"How so?"

"All our ships collect their own supplies, if these ships will be under your command for any longer periods of time we require that you provide them with supplies," she said.

"I don't see a problem with that. How long would their current supplies last?"

"We are here to pick up supplies. When fully loaded they will last about a month, give or take a week depending on the ship," Larrin informed.

"So six ships, at most two and a half thousand people?" Daniel asked.

"The first six ships will not have more than twelve hundred people onboard Daniel," Larrin said.

"That would double the people we're feeding, but we should be able to do it. Of course I will have to run things by Atlantis first."

"Then as long as your people can provide supplies, our ships will be at your disposal for safe errands," the old woman stated and slammed her fist into the table so the entire thing shook.

"You said that you can serve two ships at a time right now. Correct?" Larrin asked.

"Yes, we have two piers on Atlantis on which we can land and fix ships, but we hope to have a proper shipyard working soon. We hope it can serve four ships of these sizes, perhaps more if no major work is needed," Daniel confirmed.

"Many are not sure about this offer until they can see proof themselves." Larrin said. "So my own and Katana's ships will be the first served, to prove that you truly mean what you say and that we're in no danger while our ships are grounded."

"Then it's decided. I can give you Atlantis' location and you can arrive after you have gathered your supplies," Daniel said.

"It is," the woman said and got up. "I look forward to seeing the result of this pact." With those words she left the room and in her wake Katana entered.

"We're ready, as you asked," she said to Larrin.

"Good work," Larrin said and turned to the two men. "Her ship is fully stocked and ready to go, there's no reason she can't follow you back to Atlantis right away."

"That's our ride back home then," Sheppard said happily.

"I'll just need to call Jack and clear it with him, otherwise they might come out looking for us," Daniel said.

"We can do that on the way back to my ship," Katana said with a smile. "I'd like to see what that ship of yours can do."

"I can show you a trick or two," Sheppard said with a laugh. Something which caused Larrin to glare at him.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** If you take offence by this, please don't. This is a work of fiction where thoughts and ideas can be explored and taken to their limits.

High above Aycelon the Traveler ship returned to normal space and was instantly hailed by Atlantis. -This is Atlantis flight, welcome to Aycelon-

"This is Colonel Sheppard, is everything prepared for our arrival?"

-Mokar and Dr. Zelenka are waiting for your arrival on the west pier-

"Thank you. Sheppard out."

From outside the atmosphere the ship dove down at full speed and begun to flatten out its decent just a few kilometers above the ocean surface. As the ship came up to the city's shield it pierced it with ease and begun to land on the western pier. Standing ready for their arrival was Dr. Zelenka, Mokar, a large number of engineers and a dozen hover sleighs loaded with equipment. As it touched down on the deck the ship powered down completely for the first time since its construction. A silence settled over the ship which felt like nothing the crew had experienced. Before there had always been a slight hum at the least, but now it was completely silent. It stayed that way for a few seconds, then the thumping of boots hitting the hard deck begun to sound as everyone hurried to get to the boarding ramp, not only to defend their ship if anything happened, but also out of curiosity. Now they would all step out of their ship and use the ramp to do so. Not counting the Aurora-class ship this was the first time a Traveler ship had landed on a planet since they escaped into space. As the crew, which numbered just under two hundred, waited by the ramp one of their engineers walked down the hall leading to it with a plasma cutter in his hand. Many hundreds, possibly thousands, of years ago the ramp had been deemed unnecessary and when the seals around it had begun to leak it had been welded shut. Now the single engineer was cutting away the weld and after almost half an hour he finished his work. Along one of the walls a man received the order to open it and with eager hands he operated the controls, to no use. Nothing happened because the machinery which operated the ramp had partly been salvaged and partly it had decayed far beyond working order long before the ramp had been welded in place. Still the man refused to let that stop him from following orders and so he walked up to the engineer and took the plasma cutter from him. Then he begun to cut the two large pistons which held it up. From somewhere in the back more cutters were sent forward and a minute later five men had helped him cut away the pistons. With them out of the way the six walked out on the ramp and jumped up. When they slammed down the ramp gave away and fell down on Atlantis with a bang. First out was Katan and two steps behind her came Daniel and Sheppard, then the others followed as fast as they could. Outside they were greeted by the large group gathered outside.

"Welcome to Atlantis," Mokar said and walked towards them.

"It's an honor to see this great city and to be allowed to walk upon it," she replied.

"With your permission some of our engineers will board your ship and begin their preparations," he replied, wasting no time.

"Granted. Our engineers will be making sure they understand the technology they're responsible for."

"That will not be a problem," Zelenka said while his engineers walked past them. "We will make sure you can fix any problems with the new equipment."

* * *

"I prefer not to repeat myself, but as you heard in their nomination. For their work towards global stability and their hard work against global terrorism, this year's Nobel Peace Prize is awarded, today here in Oslo, to Alterran Tactics," a man in a black suit said from the podium. From one of the round tables Lorne stood up and walked slowly forward to the stage. When he was there the man moved away to make space at the podium.

"It is a true honor to receive this award," Lorne said to the applause and cheering of the scientist and celebrities in the audience. "For many years I have worked for the SGC and almost all of the time it was scientist and engineers like those of you seated here who saved Earth and the rest of the galaxy while we soldiers did our best to buy them time. So to be able to receive this prize for our acts as soldiers, given to us by the people who usually saves the day means much to me and to us as soldiers. We are not the first military force to have been given this award, but we are the first in over twenty years to have been given it. That to me means much, it means we as a military force have succeeded in our purpose, to defend and protect those who needs it. But it also means that many other have failed. On our large green planet there are many countries and only a minority of them does not have a standing military force. This means we have over two hundred governmental armed forces. The majority of these claim to be working for peace and equality. Yet here I stand as the second person to claim this prize for a military's work. Most militaries are well organised and to think that instead of these massive organisations who claim to work for peace individual people have gotten almost all Nobel Peace Prizes. I say this needs to end, militaries should not be used to invade other countries or to terrorise civilians, militaries should help those who needs their help and protection. But foremost military personnel should not take action without the support of the local population. These are the cornerstones upon which we operate in Alterran Tactics and we hope to inspire others to follow our lead," with those words he finished his receiving speech and bowed to his audience.

Before he could straighten up again a bang rang out across the huge room and a forcefield flickered in front of the stage. In the chaos that followed twenty or so heavily armed men ran in and begun to fire everywhere. Towards the front the Alterran Tactics soldiers drew their Alterran guns and begun to fire back in their black suits. Their only defense was the personal shields they had hidden under their suits, but that did not stop the bullets which ripped through the shields, their clothes and their flesh. In the other end of the room the heavily armed men let the energy bolts of the Alterran guns spread across their armour without a care. Somewhere in the crowd two bodyguards stood up and fired of their normal ballistic guns at the attackers. Unlike the energy based guns used by the Alterran Tactics soldiers they pierced the armour of their attackers. But they could only kill three men each before they got mowed down. It would take half an hour before the police arrived to find a slaughter and four attackers, who would managed to claim the lives of seventeen police officers during the coming eight hours before they too lay dead next to their victims.

* * *

Four minutes after the attack in Oslo a man in the Antarctic outpost was standing at his workstation in the outposts control room. In his left pocket lay a small device which looked deceivingly much like an old pocket watch. But this was one of four hundred receivers crafted using Goa'uld technology to receive its activation signal anywhere inside the galaxy. Once the correct signal was transmitted to it the screen would light up, just like it now did, and that was it. Each one had cost well over a million dollars, but the only thing it did was light up, still someone had been willing to pay the price for all of them, plus the transmitter which had cost many hundreds times more. When the receiver lith up in the man's pocket he called over a coworker to take his place, then he left for a nearby staircase. It took him down several levels from the control room to a storage room which they used to store emergency gear. It had been created as part of an expansion phase to house the influx of goods from off-world, but stashed away inside the room was a gate buster, officially known as the Mark IX naquadria enhanced nuclear bomb. With the Goa'uld attack the SGC had been thrown into chaos for a short while and, among other things, the design for it had leaked to many of Earth's enemies which had agents on Earth. One such copy had found its way to the hands of a Second of the Lucian Alliance, looking to make a name for herself she had sold the copy to a third party when the Alterra had swooped in to save the planet, in exchange she had gotten the promise that it would be used against the outpost. Once built another agent had placed the bomb there for the third party. Now this man was sitting down right next to it, in one hand he held a locket which contained the single picture he had managed to save when the Goa'uld had assaulted his village. It showed his family in front of their village but now the image had been covered in blood spray. In the other hand he held a red crystal which he slid into a small slot in the casing of the bomb. The moment he did a red line ran from the back to the front, it took just over two seconds, and when it reached the front everything went white. The explosions radius of the Mark IX would normally have been roughly a thousand kilometers, but as it were the Lucian Alliance agent had deliberately place the bomb right next to the new Alterran Naquadah generators which increased the released energy. While it should only have destroyed the outpost it now evaporated large parts of the Antarctic continent and sent tremors through the crust of the planet which would be felt for days to come. While hundreds of people had been sent out across the globe to assault or sabotage anything or anyone who had anything to do with aliens their attacks were nothing in comparison to what had just taken place in the south. Still it was like hundreds of bees stinging at once. While most operatives would take lives and give their own for the cause on Earth around a fifth had been placed out in the galaxy, along with their bombs and guns. In the aftermath of this somewhere between three and four billion people lost their lives, solely on Earth. Out in the galaxy dozen of human civilisations got devastated with the Jaffa taking the brunt of it with uncountable numbers of casualties, whole planets were turned desolate and their fleets of Ha'taks were turned into debris fields.

* * *

Somewhere beneath the Arctic ice thirty six large hatches were moved away and dropped to the seafloor, allowing huge amounts of ice cold salt water to flood the hangars that each of them had protected. From these frozen concrete caskets 304s rose, one from each. Or at least that was what they looked like, in truth they were much closer to the 303 tech wise than the 304 simply because most of the technology had been viewed as too alien by the eccentric millionaires and billionaires who had paid for them. Instead the 304 design had been taken and all alien technology had been replaced by human versions. Even shields and hyperdrives were completely Tau'ri designed, but the most advanced technology was by far the transportation technology. By studying the Alterran rings and the Asgard transporters a compromise had been created, a base plate which did not need anything on the side, but it still needed an identical receiver, which could not be more than ten kilometers away. This was by far the most advanced ship which could have been built with Earth's technology and it was more than a match for the Ha'taks the 303 had been built to counter, but against the much more advanced 304 it would not hold its own. As it were the 304 could hold its own against ten of these ships. At eleven the scales would tip slightly in favor of this new design. This design had been named the BC-305 as it was a replacement for the 304. As these ships rose through the water they pierced the ice and split up, each ship heading for the person or persons financing their construction. When their founders were safely onboard the ships would rise up to give the men and women responsible for the ships and the devastation a good view of their work and the planet they would lead out into space with iron fists. The explosion in the Antarctic outpost might have changed Earth's rotational axis and orbit slightly but such trivial things did not worry them, not even the fact that their sensors told them that the magnetic north pole had shifted to the red sea could get them worried or put them in a bad mod. Now was their time to shine and shine they would.


	6. Chapter 6

"I have some concerns from my engineers," Katana said.

"I'm sure Zelenka can explain everything to them," Mokar said. They were seated around the conference table in Atlantis for what had become a weekly briefing. Since Katana and her ship was still landed on the city she had been invited too.

"It's not easy to do when I don't understand the technology fully myself," he replied.

"So where does the problem lie?"

"Our ships used a simple mass to energy converter for power, now...," she begun, but before she could finish the sentence Mokar let out a shriek and fell out of his chair and onto the floor, clasping his head in his hands.

"Get a medic in here," Sheppard shouted as he ran around the table and the doors begun to open. From outside the sound of the dialing gate called for his attention and while four medics standing by in the control room rushed inside he hurried out. "Who's dialing?"

"We are Sir," the technician said, just as the gate failed to get a lock. "That's odd, we can't seem to get establish an outgoing wormhole."

"Dial it again."

"Yes Sir," the tech responded and a few seconds later it failed again. "No lock Sir."

"Dial Athyl and recall General O'Neill."

"Yes Sir."

"Radek," Sheppard shouted towards the conference room.

"Coming," the Czech's voice responded. A second later the medics rushed out with Mokar on a stretcher and Radek followed behind, just as the gate shut down.

"General O'Neill will need at least an hour before he can reach the gate," the tech reported.

"Dial the gate again to where we failed to establish a wormhole," Sheppard ordered before turning to Zelenka.

"You mean to Earth Sir?" the tech asked.

"Yes, if that's the world we couldn't establish a wormhole to," he said before the meaning of the question could sink in.

"Move," Zelenka said to the tech, leaving no room to argue. Before he even had time to sit down in the now empty chair he was working.

"Who dialled it?" Sheppard asked, the fact that they could not establish a wormhole to Earth was now sinking in.

"By remote Sir, wasn't from here," the tech replied.

"Find Rodney."

"Yes Sir," the tech said and rushed away.

"Rodney returned to Earth yesterday, with Elizabeth," Zelenka informed him.

"I know he was meant to, but I could at least hope," Sheppard replied. "So, what's happening with the gate?"

"Well whatever happened to our Alterran friend was linked to this, the gate tried to dial using a special protocol, you could call it a clean up of sorts."

"Clean up?"

"Well normally a gate would not connect if it was buried, this overrides that failsafe," Zelenka explained patiently. "Now the mental connection he can establish with the city was active at the same time, so he either dialled the gate or the dialling was what caused his pain."

"Do what you have to, just get us a connection to Earth," Sheppard said, then he took of for the infirmary.

* * *

A few hours later an outgoing wormhole was established between Atlantis and a Jaffa world, when it did the activation signal was transmitted through the wormhole and into Pegasus. While hundreds of receivers had been sent out through the Milky Way only four had been smuggled through the gate to Atlantis by a Lucian Alliance agent. Each one had been rigged to explode when triggered and each one had been placed where they would do the most damage. One had been placed on the stardrive's buffers. The explosion it caused was far from catastrophic but it did strand the city-ship on the planet. Two had been placed on the main power conduits which came straight from the three ZPMs and they cut most of the power to the entire city, but with them offline the backup Naquadah generators simply kicked in to power the parts of the city it could. The fourth device had originally been inserted into one of the ZPM sockets underneath the ZPM itself. There it would have caused a catastrophic overload powerful enough to evaporate the star system and three of the surrounding ones. Now the two on the power conduits had been thought to be enough to start this overload, but due to the fire suppression system they were never given the chance to do so. Instead the last device had been moved to the traveler ship's mass to energy converter. There it caused a slightly delayed explosion during the seconds the city lacked power, when the fire suppression system could not detect it. The result was an explosion which destroyed the traveler ship completely and badly damaged the pier it had landed on. Thankfully it had been a late friday evening and most engineers and Travelers had left the ship for the mess hall, only leaving twenty men to die on the ship. Thankfully enough they were the only lives lost in the city that day. But the damage caused to the city was great enough to send another painful jolt through Mokar for breaking one of his prime directives and it would take him days before he had the strength to open his eyes and for weeks to come he would be unable to get out of bed.

* * *

Two days after the explosions O'Neill had managed to restore enough order that he could visit the infirmary. He had come through the gate about an hour after the explosion, the delay had been due to some unforeseen problems with the new Asurans.

"How are you holding up?" he asked while he took a chair and dragged it across the floor to the bed where Mokar was lying.

"I have what you would call a migraine."

"A hell of a hangover was what the doctor compared it to."

"I assure you there was no alcohol involved in this, at least on my part," he said and sighed. "That was the punishment for breaking the prime directives."

"Twise."

"Twise?"

"We assume something happened to Earth since we can't establish a wormhole there."

"Yes, the gate's gone along with the DHD, I'm more or less connected to the network all the time here on Atlantis and it detected their destruction," he said and grimaced at the pain. "Which was the second?"

"Atlantis. We dialled another world in the Milky Way and some sort of subspace signal backtracked through the wormhole, luckily for us you got the fire suppression system working again or the four following explosions would have made the city sink."

"Casualties?"

"A handful of travelers and just over a dozen engineers working on the ship."

"High or low compared to structural damage?"

"Extremely low I'd say. We're still running the city on the generators and the stardrive couldn't take us anywhere even if pushed it. But the west pier, where we refitted their ship, took the most damage, you'll need more than just a bucket of paint and some duct tape to fix it."

"How bad is it really?"

"You'll need a few hundred tons of steel and a few thousand paint buckets. Around two thirds of the pier is lying right next to the outpost on the seafloor."

"We can salvage that later, we don't really need that pier right now anyway. The Travelers can wait and we can still service one ship at a time."

"Way to stay positive. Problem is Daniel wasn't aware of the fact that Athyl isn't in Pegasus but in Darecian, so he might have promised them that we could service a few more ships at a time than we could ever do with just the city."

"We can sort out that mess later. For now I need everyone to focus on the outpost, get it operational."

"We are already doing just that, Radek said we can mine much of the rare resources we need from the planet through it. And I have called back Sam, she will get to work on the pier with the Asurans."

"Good, focus on Neutronium and Naquadah. If we lost contact with Earth we will need more Asurans for a large workforce."

"Hence the Neutronium. And the Naquadah is the base for most of your technology." O'Neill said.

"Come closer." Mokar said, he could barely stay awake and he still needed to show O'Neill what they were going to build. When O'Neill was close enough he held up his hands and let them touch his head, sending an image into his mind. What O'Neill received was the image of a segmented ring, close to a stargate in appearance. Then the image shifted and the ring shrunk into a star system. When it activated just like a stargate he realised it was a supergate and it was confirmed when his vision crashed into the surface of the wormhole and was shifted to an identical ring at Athyl. The message was clear to him, that was what they would need the Naquadah for. Also in his head was what he needed to set up the supply line from the outpost to the manufacturing facility in the Milky Way. From there he would send the gates back to the star system he had been shown in the Pegasus galaxy, a remote and desolate system, perfect for hiding a supergate.

* * *

Around a week later the first batch of Naquadah came back from the Milky Way in the form of supergate segments. Standing ready in the gate room of Atlantis were eighty five Asurans who caught the segments as they came through and moved them to a storage room. With all the segments on Atlantis the gate was dialled again and the segments were carried through the wormhole to the desolate world on the other side of the gate. There the segments formed a supergate while the Asurans quickly set up cloak projectors to hide the stargate and the facility on the planet which would provide the power to the gate. The Ori gates were built to sent through their great warships which were just shy of one kilometer in width, but this one had been made much smaller so instead they could be powered by eight of the new Naquadah generators. At two hundred and fifty meters in diameter it was large enough for even the massive, but slender, Aurora class to slip through.

* * *

Under the cover of darkness she snuck out of her assigned room and walked down the corridor. She had something in mind, but the others did not need to know about her plans, at least not for now. When she came to the end of the hall she turned towards the door and waved her hand in front of the sensor, not surprisingly she heard the signal inside the room, but no one replied from inside, just like she had hoped. With her knife she pried open the casing and begun to shift around the crystals to open the door, the same procedure they had used on their Aurora-class ship.

"I'm out here, no need to ruin the lock," a familiar voice sounded behind her.

"Thought I'd surprise you a little," she said in her sweetest voice and hid the knife quickly in her clothes.

"Well you didn't," he said while she walked towards the figure who stood on a balcony outside the tower they were in.

"It's truly beautiful, the city in the dark," she said when she leaned against the railing next to him.

"Yes. The city's been my home for years, but I still come here almost every night to look at the view," he said affirmingly. As they stood there he felt a hand fumbling onto his.

"You know when I last bound you up we formed an alliance against the Asuran, now here you are using them as workers John."

"Yes, we have lost all contact with the humans of our home galaxy, we call it the Milky Way. So we can't get workers that way any more, but we still need more capable hands every day. But these aren't meant to be used as weapons, only as a labor force. We have faced nanites in many galaxies but these are the first which aren't allowed to replicate, the trait which have made them such a pain. We need to manually construct each one of them, one at a time."

"If you say they can be trusted then I will take your word for it John," she said and squeezed his hand. "But I was going to talk about the alliance we formed then and what we have now."

"What about it?" he asked, spreading his fingers so her fingers could interlock with his.

"Well to start with your people owe us a ship."

"Something which we're going to settle tomorrow," he promised.

"Then there's your lack of people, we number in the thousands and everyone older than eight years can man our ships."

"You can't build new ships, we can," he said as he caught on.

"You haven't proved that yet," she teased. "But I think you understand where I'm going with this."

"You say the Travelers would complement us," he said and turned towards her.

"Just like we complement each other," she said and came close to him.

"Really? Like how you go and romanticize everyone to disarm them?"

"My only knife is stashed away and I don't think I really need to take away any weapons from you."

"This knife?" he asked with her blade dangling between his fingers.

"So you have me unarmed John, what are you going to do?"

"I'll probably ask what you suggest for our alliance?"

"What do you know of our fleet?" she asked after turning away.

"Not much, it's some sort of lose group were each captain rule over almost everything on the ship. When you don't need supplies or need to trade you try to stay in deep space, away from the Wraith."

"Yes, that's true, but there's only a small portion of our fleet which gathers supplies," she explained while they looked out over the city. "The majority of our fleet is in such a bad state that it no longer leaves deep space, it floats around there in a tight cluster while the rest of us do our best to bring what they need."

"So the fleet we saw was only part of your fleet?"

"Around a fifth of our still space capable ships, the others are spread out into groups of four," she said. "But that's not what you should focus on here John, with hyperdrives I could repair the ships and have them flown here to be upgraded. I could have them put under your control and in exchange you provide us with supplies and repairs."

"Your ships are small and old Larrin, even if we refit every system in the ship there's no way to make up for that."

"We have a few larger ships, they just don't move by themself," she protested.

"Which is your problem, but you say they're packed with people?"

"We don't keep exact count, but there's thousands of people on each one of those ships."

"We could use those people, I'll see what I can do."

"That is all I ask John."


	7. Chapter 7

On the southern pier of Atlantis the Traveler ship was finishing preparations and the engineers were tidying up after themselves before leaving the ship to the Travelers again. With the worst of the damage patched up the ship was once again fit for the dangers of space. It had only received the most dire repairs so it had only taken two days. After going through launch procedures the ship hurried away from the planet. At a safe distance above the planet it activated the old hyperspace engine and performed a short hyperspace jump. At their destination awaited the small supergate. When the ground station detected their approach it dropped the supergate's cloak and begun the process of dialling the second Alterran supergate. A few seconds later the connection was created and the gate activated. Then the ship slipped through and the gate closed after them. With everything going quiet the Asuran controlled ground station activated the cloak again and let the gate vanish.

* * *

"Here we are." Sheppard said when the ship had moved away from the supergate. With the gate now back in standby mode the only illumination came from the star which cast its warm light across the system.

"Sensors show nothing but asteroids," a crew member reported. He did not even have to look at Larrin to know the question she had been going to ask.

In response Sheppard held up a finger and pressed the com badge on his collar. "Colonel Carter, requesting permission to dock with section eight, dry dock two."

-Accepted- came her response just a second later. On an asteroid a few kilometers ahead white and blue lines appeared and grew in size as the massive blast doors slid away, instead revealing force fields which held the atmosphere inside.

"Still nothing but asteroids on the sensors."

"We're using Alterran jamming technology," Sheppard explained as they approached the growing hole in the asteroid. "So just head for the light and we'll be fine."

"Do it," Larrin ordered.

Slowly the ship moved towards the asteroid and as it came closer it begun to slow down until it just barely moved forward. At first the shield only looked as a bright spot but as it took up more and more of the viewport the view of the interior begun to filter through the blue and white shield, revealing a large space which had been carved into the asteroid itself. The space had been divided into six small docks and one much larger dock.

In two of the smaller docks ribcages had been constructed and the engineers were in the process of adding the outer hull of the small vessels, whose outline was an almost copy of the Traveler generation ship. In the larger dock something else entirely was sitting.

A large vessel flying the Alterran military colours, red, grey and black. At four hundred and thirty five meter it was two times the length of the 304 and just shy of half a wraith Cruiser, but a width of a hundred meters put it around the 304 and the Traveler Generation ship. What made it remarkable however was the narrow height of twenty meters that really gave it a sleek, blade-looking, profile.

When the front of their ship touched the shield tractor beams inside the asteroid activated and turned the ship around while still maintaining the momentum. This meant the ship was neatly reversed into the drydock right between the two ribcages.

-Welcome to the Athyl shipyard. You are currently in section eight, one of only two sections which is currently operationable,- a smooth and soft, computer generated, voice came through Sheppard's com badge.

"What is all of this?" Larrin asked.

"As our virtual assistant just said this system is called Athyl," he said. Outside they could see ledges along the walls. When the ship settled down the ledges begun to extend towards the ship and men and women hurried out onto them. "It was built by the Alterra and has stood since their fall. We thought about using it to build ships for ourselves at first, but now that you've told us about your situation it's dedicated to building a new fleet of generation ships for your people."

"So what ship was it we landed just above? There's no ship like that in our fleet."

"It's Katana's new ship, The Retributor," Sheppard explained. "It's our way of compensating her for the ship that was destroyed in our care."

"It has a most peculiar shape."

"Yes, it's a Lantean design made during their war with the Wraith. They never finished it but we fixed the last things," he said and gestured for the exit of the bridge. "But before we let you tour the station I have been asked to take you to one of the the archive rooms, we wish to show you something."

"Lead the way."

The way he lead her on was a long one, first going by one of the ships which was being constructed and then all the way back to the other ship, before finally entering a room which was about ten by ten meters. Except for the black sphere which was half hidden at the center of the floor there was nothing to separate the circular room, with its brownish rock walls and grey floor, from the rest of the tunnels which were found inside the asteroid. When they entered the room that all changed, from the floor the sphere rose and begun to project a variety of things into the room, everything from the layout of the station to the blueprints of every ship built to information on every ship to ever dock with the station.

"Welcome. New user detected," a holographic woman said from the other side of the room. She was dressed in the normal white robes of the Alterran and her black, straight, hair waved from side to side as she walked from the other side of the room to the center, just below the hovering orb. "I am a holographic representation of this station and through me all records in my system can be accessed."

"What was the original purpose of this station?" Sheppard asked the hologram.

"This station was built to construct ships for the Alterran Empire," the hologram said while hundreds of ship designs spun around it.

"What was the purpose of the two small ships being built at the moment?"

"To fight the Wraith."

"Explain," Larrin demanded in confusion.

"Forty eight years after the wraith emerged in the galaxy you have named Pegasus the Alterra felt they could win the war in time, as the wraith harvested thousands of humans each day just to keep their war machine going the Alterra felt they needed to end it much sooner. Due to their advanced psychology and low numbers only a few hundred Alterran were born every decade, still the Alterra felt they needed to create a large military force in only a few years. By this point the Alterra had already created the race you call Lanteans, but they too were advanced in their psychology and could not reproduce fast enough." As the hologram spoke holograms of wraith ships and warriors moving around the room were mixed with Alterra and Lanteans reproducing. "A few years later the design for this ship was created by the Lanteans to move the population of the galaxy into deep space. Based on simple technology the design was easily built and did not require the rarer resources used as a base in the more advanced Alterran technologies. This allowed their shipyards to produce hundreds of ships each year, all sent to Pegasus. Once in Pegasus it is unclear what happened to the ships. The Lantean plan was to train the native human population to fight and resist the wraith with the ships, mostly by protecting other human worlds but also by seeking out wraith strongholds. This however was only discovered by the Alterra shortly before they died out as a species and when they did the Lanteans no longer had access to most of their shipyards. With the plan revealed the Alterra ordered the ships to flee into deep space, staying away from the wraith as best they could. When this station lost power many millions of years ago all ships were presumed to have been destroyed."

"We found this in the datacore a few days ago, I was only informed of this a few hours before we left Atlantis," Sheppard said.

"This is amazing, so everyone of our ships were built here?" Larrin asked

"Only a few, most were built in Pegasus."

"So they meant for us to fight the wraith?"

"The Lanteans yes," he confirmed. "But the Alterra did not like the thought of sending out humans to die in ships which they knew were far inferior to those of the wraith. They wanted a fleet to combat the wraith, but they wanted quality as well as large numbers. The ship you saw while we docked was what they would have wanted you to fight with, the Alterran plan, as far as we can tell, was for these new ships to replace those you have now."

"Then why create two new Generation ships?"

"A test mostly. We wanted to see if the design was viable to be used for a new serie of ships to replace those you have."

"Why do that if you're building this new class to fight the wraith with?"

"Infrastructure really, we don't have the engineers to build more than one of these large ships at a time. But two small can be done with those we have remaining, plus you already have the hull to start with. It will be just like the upgrading done on Atlantis, only much more thorough."

"So with more people you could create more at the same time?"

"Yes, we're already training some of Katana's people to help, but more would be welcome."

"I will have someone round up those willing to help on my ship as soon as I can."

"You can talk to Colonel Carter about that. Now I'm sure you have more questions for the station, but I have to leave with the Retribution for the Milky Way in a few minutes." He searched his pocket and found a com badge which he pressed into her hand. "Ask for Carter when you're done and someone will come for you."

With rapid steps he left the room and hurried to the dock where the Retribution was waiting for him. The grey, red and black hull glimed as the star's rays reflected of it. When he stepped onto the ramp it begun to contract into the ship and the two halves of the hull which had opened to let the ramp extrude begun to close and sealed the hull a few seconds later. "I'm on board now," he said into the com badge as he walked through two airlocks which sealed behind him. Inside the ship the same red, grey and black colours could be found everywhere. The ship had three long corridors which went from front to back with crew quarters between the hull and the outer corridors. Inside, between the corridors, were the secondary and primary bridges, the drone hold, engineering, infirmary and everything else necessary to run the ship. Close to the back of the ship a small hangar was hidden beneath thick plates of armour.

The primary bridge he headed for sat on the forth fifth of the ship and when he entered it was filled with people, each one sitting at consoles which controlled the hundreds of weapons hidden beneath the hull of the ship or the drones that waited to be deployed. A few consoles remained unmanned though since the ship had not been loaded with any unmanned fighters which would be directed from the empty consoles while the pilots themselves sat deeper inside the ship.

"Colonel," Katana greeted him when he came onto the bridge.

"Captain," he replied.

"Have a seat Sir," she offered. Standing up from the Captain's chair.

"Don't call me that, this is your ship and you're in charge," he said, ignoring her offer.

"But you're in command of this mission and therefore this ship," she said.

"Fine," he said, giving up his attempt to change her mind. "You can take us out Captain."

"Destination?" she asked while their pilot took the ship out of the dock.

"The supergate. We'll take it back to Pegasus and then we'll do a jump from there to the Milky Way."

"You heard the Colonel, do a micro jump back to the gate," she ordered.

A few seconds after her order was given the ship performed a micro jump through hyperspace to the gate which had been dialled from the station. Once there it waited for the gate to finish its activation, then it slipped through the gate, back into Pegasus.

When the pilot tried to plot a course for the Milky Way and Earth a pedestal arose from the floor right in front of Sheppard who lay a hand on the top. After checking his DNA the ship matched it against a list of authorised personnel and only then did it allow the hyperdrive to plot the intergalactic jump. Still it took four seconds before the hyperspace window formed, this time was used to activate a number of extra generators and to initiate the ZPM, neither of which were used during normal operations. Now they were used to give them a great speed boost through the white and blue hyperspace window.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** So this is far from a serious chapter, it's just something for the holidays, so enjoy.

"What is this?" O'Neill asked when he stepped into the control room. A few meters in front of the gate a large blue pine tree was sitting.

"Come on Jack, it's almost christmas so we got a christmas tree," Sam said. She was standing at the base of the tree, holding a ladder in place while a marine hung up some ornaments.

"A christmas tree is suppose to be green, not blue. How did you even bring it here?" He was walking down the stairs towards the tree.

"It's what we managed to find on the planet Jack, there was orange and pink trees on the mainland of the planet too but I doubt you would like those better."

"A red one would have been better." He was slowly pacing around the tree, inspecting every branch. "You should place another bell here."

"Well we could not find any red ones on the planet Jack, so we took a blue one. Alright? We used some jumpers to lower it through the tower here. It might be a bit on the tall side but then this is the first time we have had a christmas tree so why not go big." Her smile was going from ear to ear. When Jack passed under a nearby mistletoe she took her chance and placed a kiss on his cheek.

"I'll let that slip this time Colonel," Jack said and continued walking around the tree. "So you think we should celebrate christmas properly Carter?"

"There's no immediate threat to the city right now General, people are simply trying to enjoy the holiday. There's been some gift workshops going on around the city so there should be some pretty nice gifts going around tomorrow."

"That's all of them Ma'am," the marine said after climbing down the ladder.

"Thank you Marine."

"Well I guess we could try to do the best of the situation," Jack said. He pressed his com badge and linked it to the city's intercom. "Everyone listen up. It seems that yet again christmas is around the corner and as I have been informed we're in no immediate danger. Everyone who wants to prepare for tomorrow are free to do so. I have heard that there are several workshops around the city where you are creating gifts for each other. I know we don't have a large storage of materials so if those leading the workshops need more materials talk to any senior officer, bring a team with you and you will be free to gather materials from the mainland. Tomorrow morning the senior officers will be manning the city, everyone else will have the day off until noon."

"So we're manning the city tomorrow?" Sam asked.

"Yea, why not? It'll be fun, just like old times without anyone else to order around."

"I hope so Sir."

"Care to show me to the closest workshop? I think I should be making some gifts too. We just need to swing by the mess hall first."

"I'd be delighted to General." She pushed her arm under his and pulled him along towards the closest transport booth.

"Now you're really pushing it Colonel." He complained but did nothing to escape her grasp as she dragged him into the transporter booth.

* * *

The mess hall was filled with cheering people when the duo stepped out of the booth. Around them thanks were heard while Jack steared them towards the serving area. The chef on the other side of the counter was blooming with joy when he saw them approaching. "Welcome General, Colonel. We heard your announcement here. Can I get you anything special today?"

"I was wondering what you would need to prepare a feast for the city's population? Tomorrow."

"I think we have everything we need already, we just need some time to prepare it."

"Good. I look forward to it."

"It will be our pleasure General."

"So where were those workshops Colonel?" Jack asked.

"Just come with me Sir," Sam said and dragged him along.

* * *

As the morning came Jack got up early and hurried to the infirmary where he dropped of a small present for Mokar who was still asleep. Then he used the nearby transporter booth to get to the control room. There was some activity up in the control room but he sneaked in from the side of the tree and placed the gifts he had managed to create under it before slipping back into the side tunnels and emerging from the stairs at the back of the control room a few minutes later.

"Good morning," he shouted.

A few tired replies came from the people in the control room.

"Looks like everyone's here now," Sam said. She came out of the control room's office with a large tray. "Let's have some breakfast."

"I thought the chefs would have their hands full today without cooking up a breakfast like that for us," Jack said when she brought the tray over to him. It was full of food.

"It's my own creations."

"I can see that," Daniel said. He held up a sausage that was burnt to a crisp with his fork.

"I've been eating in the mess hall for more than twenty years, of course my cooking's crap."

"How about we open some gifts instead?" Teal'c said and dropped the black burnt meatball that was frozen inside.

"Sounds like a good idea," Jack said.

Together the four friends walked down to the blue tree and Sam bent down to grab a long small present. "I think you should start Jack."

"Oh really?" Jack asked when she handed him the gift. "What have you kids done now?"

"Come on Jack, just open it," Sam urged.

"Calm down." Slowly he removed the string and tore away the paper. When the paper fell away he held a long red rod in his hands. He took a firm grip as far apart as he could and flexed the rod. "That's a great rod, it's some new composite?"

"No it's wood from M3P-924. The harsh and windy climate has created some really tenacious wood that's got an incredible breaking strength. You could catch a small shark with that and some good line," Sam said.

"I didn't take you for the woodcraft type Carter." Again he flexed it.

"It was Teal'c's idea to get you a fishing rod Sir. I just figured out what wood to use for it."

"Indeed. I found the wood to be most durable yet light. It will be most effective to craft training weapons from," Teal'c said.

"Here's mine," Daniel said. From beneath the tree he pulled a small square package and handed it to him.

"Now what's this?" Jack asked. From inside the package he pulled a yarn of fine line. "Fishing line?"

"Yes, it should be enough to cope with the fishes you get with that rod."

"So I guess the third one is a reel?" Jack asked when he was handed a third package.

"You would be right," Teal'c said.

"Thank you. Now go on and open mine."

"You had time to get us all gifts?" Daniel asked.

"Yea well I had some time to spare." He reached in under the tree and pulled out a large package, a medium one and a small one.

"Thank you," Teal'c said. He got the largest one and spared no time opening it. Inside lay a pair of light brown sparing staffs.

"You might want to oil them in a few more times so you don't get splinters."

"Indeed."

"Uhm… General you do know that a chess board requires pieces to play," Carter said. In her package was a foldable chessboard with plenty of space inside for pieces, but no pieces.

"Yes I know what you need to play chess Colonel but there was no time to handcraft all the pieces needed for a complete chess set. Maybe I'll craft you the rest of the set during the year if you're nice."

"It's the thought that counts I guess," Daniel joked.

"Then you'll be thrilled by your gift," Jack said with a smile when Daniel begun to open his gift.

"Really? You crafted those things for them and you get me a photograph?" Daniel said. In his present there had been a picture frame with a photo of the four.

"It's more than just a picture." Jack snatched the photo from him and tapped the frame two times. Slowly the photo came to life and the four small figures in it begun to wave to them.

"Alright that's a little cooler," Daniel said when Jack handed it back.

"Check the back."

On the back of the frame a note was attached. "What's this?" Daniel asked while he removed it. "Check to do things my way five times," he read aloud from the note.

"Use them sparingly, I'm not going to give you anymore of those."

"Thanks Jack, merry christmas."

"Merry christmas kids."


	9. Chapter 9

"I didn't think you'd be up and walking around yet," O'Neill said when he saw Mokar walking into the mess hall.

"I need to leave the city and the gate network for a couple of weeks," he replied, ignoring the surprise in O'Neill voice.

"I don't think you should even leave your bed in the infirmary in your condition."

"It is because of my condition that I need to leave."

"We have sent a ship to check on Earth and we will make sure no other explosives can be brought here."

"That will not do not it. There's one of our old galaxies, Libee. We did a lot of dimensional research there because it has a very brittle dimensional barrier. I should be able to break through the barrier with some help from our old labs."

"And it's outside the gate network?"

"Partially, the outer planets can be accessed by gate, but the closer to the core you get the more unstable the barrier becomes."

"So it's really easy to enter and exit subspace then?"

"A little too easy. The problem is you never know where you will end up."

"So how would you navigate the galaxy then?"

"There is two ways. There is several hundred sensor station which a ship can use to navigate the galaxy somewhat accurate, still the margin of error is so large that a ship could risk jumping to a different star system, or even emerge inside a celestial body. The second is by using the same drive Destiny has."

"An FTL drive."

"Yes, there should be a shuttle equipped with one such drive on a planet at the edge of the galaxy with a stargate."

"So any particular reason for this pilgrimage?"

"As I said I need to breakthrough the dimensional barrier."

"To where? What could you possibly gain from that?"

"The realm where my ascended kin reside, I have hope that they will remove the directives enforced onto me."

"They could just come here and do it if they wanted to. But then they have never seemed to care too much about what happens on our plane of existence."

"There is much you do not know O'Neill," Mokar said and lifted his head from the snack he was having. In his eyes O'Neill could see the constant pain which was tearing at every fiber of the man. "There is always a cost to everything, the same is true for breaking dimensional barriers. For example, to enter subspace you need energy, the deeper into the other dimension the more energy you need. With subspace the deeper you go the faster you travel."

"Which is why a ship with a ZPM would go much faster than one without a ZPM," O'Neill said simply to show that he understood.

"As long as the ship can handle the power and does not already have something more powerful to power it. But yes that would be correct. The same goes for ascended beings and the dimension they live in."

"So get a big ass generator and do it here then."

"It is more complicated than that. Subspace can be reached with energy channeled into a hyperdrive. Most other need some sort of harmful radiation to be accessed."

"Why do I get the feeling you're going to need something even worse?"

"Mental energy is what I will be needing."

"The stuff you use to move things with your mind?"

"Yes, among other things. In time I should be able to kill with it, make plasma, small shields and other things."

"Why isn't talking to ascended being on that list?"

"Because there is no way for me to gain such a large energy reserve before I could ascend, at least in theory."

"So normally only ascended beings can cross the barrier without help?"

"No. There is no way to cross the barrier for them alone, they can not create the energy needed. As far as our research into it goes only living creatures in this dimension can create it."

"But we have seen ascended beings in this dimension."

"Yes, I have read the reports from the SGC. They have most likely used the method of the Ori to drain mental energy from the living."

"But then they can do it."

"Yes, but think of the cost in mental energy. If I did it here I would drain the mental energy of the whole city, killing everyone, and still only a thought or two could come through."

"So that's why you're going to a place with a weaker barrier."

"Yes. But I have already wasted too much time here, the sooner I get there the sooner I can get back," he said while rising from his seat. "I have created a list of planets I want you to move the city to in my absence. Place an outpost on each one and move on to the next. Then there's the expedition to Thuvalan, Caari, Sar and Lega."

"I will see to it that the outposts are created," O'Neill promised. "And Teal'c will take care of the expedition, he's a great commander."

"Then I will leave it all to you."

"Take care out there, we all need you and the stuff in your head."

"If I were to die during this journey it will be up to you to take over O'Neill."

"Then don't," O'Neill said as the other man turned around to leave.

"I can not promise that O'Neill and if I do then you need to go to Gamia and pass the trials," Mokar said just before he hurried away.

* * *

Nine days after leaving Pegasus the Retribution dropped out at the edge of the Milky Way to allow the crew on the bridge to see that they were moving between galaxies for a few seconds before the ship returned to hyperspace.

* * *

P3Z-13 was the designation the Tau'ri had given to an agricultural world which the Alterra had used to show of their advanced technology to other races. Sceron was the name the Alterra themselves had given it and the name the twelve Angelo would teach their children. After searching for a new homeworld in Pegasus the Angelo had chosen to look elsewhere and had quickly found the world in the Milky Way which they now stepped onto through the gate. With them they carried eight ZPMs, crates of food, piles of building materials and a single grey device. When they had all arrived on their new homeworld the gate was automatically locked down and the grey device was deployed. When it activated the device was powered by five of the ZPMs and it pushed the solar system and twelve surrounding solar systems out of phase to protect the Angelo. Then it activated its time dilation field and surrounded the immediate area, before the Angelo had expanded there was no reason for the field to drain more power for a larger field. Normally the use of time dilation fields were banned under Alterran council law since it could mess with the timeline and create contingency problems, but now it was not Mokar who personally broke the law and that would save him from the punishment for breaking the council law. Still it was he who had drained three ZPMs to materialize the device which had put the Angelo out of phase and was now creating the time dilation field. Outside the field time would slowly roll on day after day as usual while inside the field years would pass. It was everyone's hope that the Angelo would get a chance restore their strength inside the field and grow in numbers until they could hold back the tide of the Abasy. With the fields in place the twelve hurried to set up shelters for themselves and what little they had brought with them. Then they got on with the task of creating more of their species. They had five thousand years to expand their numbers inside the field before the ZPM would run dry and they would be returned to the normal world where war would meet them in some form.

* * *

At the edge of Libee Mokar arrived through the gate network on one of the old Alterran outpost which had been responsible for shuttling researchers deeper into the galaxy and the countless research facilities they had built there. With easy steps Mokar walked down one of the sixteen corridors which led away from the gate to the control center. Like the rest of the facility everything was covered in thick layers of dust and when he activated the old console the screen barely managed to shine through the dust. The outpost was quite small so there was only a single console to look through to find out that there were six FTL-shuttles in the hangars. Three minutes later he was down in one of the hangars and cleared the shuttle for launch. Anyone who had seen Destiny's shuttles would straight away see the resemblance between the two. Destiny's creator never had time to design a whole new shuttle, so he had only removed the FTL-drive from the Libee shuttles and smacked them onto Destiny. Now the shuttle rose from the hangar and rushed from the surface while Mokar connected it to the sensor network to update the shuttle's map. When the shuttle was ready for the journey Mokar input the coordinates for an ascension research facility close to the galaxy's core and the shuttle blasted off at breakneck speed.


	10. Chapter 10

Just over a week after seeing the Milky Way at a distance the Retribution arrived at her first destination, Earth. It opened a hyperspace window a few thousand kilometers outside the moon's orbit and and returned to normal space to find twenty ships guarding the planet.

"Captain, we're being hailed."

"Let me hear it," Katana said.

-Unidentified ship size all action and prepare to be searched,- a dark and heavy voice sounded on every frequency.

"On whose authority?" Sheppard had been standing behind the captain's chair, but now he walked up to the hidden pedestal and summoned it up from the floor.

-On the authority of the Supreme Earth Nobility we order you to do as instructed or you will be fired upon.-

"I don't take well to threats, especially threats you can't follow up with." Everyone on the bridge had been sitting silent and did not dare to move a muscle, they had all heard the rumors about what the Colonel did when he was pushed. But he was calm and composed. He knew well what he had to work with and the sensors had already shown him what the hostile ships were packing. "Simple railguns and missiles will not be of any use here."

-You are standing against the most advanced ships ever produced by the S.E.N, do as you are ordered or face the consequences.-

"We can't take them all Sheppard," Katana said behind him.

"I'm not planning on taking them on either." A thought from Sheppard activated the ship's cloak and closed the channel. "There's no way for them to hit what they can't see." He then activated the locked FTL drive which was installed for quick jumps to and from places of interests. It had been installed to work specifically with the cloak to increase the efficiency of the ship as a scout and now it was used to circle around Earth in mere moments. Still under cloak panels in the Retribution's hull shifted to expose the hangar where a single jumper was preparing for deployment. Within seconds the jumper was moving down through the atmosphere towards Antarctica while the Retribution performed a short FTL jump away from the solar system. Once it was away from prying eyes and sensors the Retribution shut down the FTL drive and dropped the cloak. The ship was visible to sensors and the naked eye for only half a second before it opened a hyperspace window and disappeared once again.

* * *

A chime at the door caught Jack's attention and he looked up from the report he was reading. It was a dry report about the workings of modern planetary economics with regard to hidden cave systems that someone had said would be important for him to read if they planned to expand into a proper empire. But so far the only insight it had given him was why all powerful leaders had advisors so this was a most welcome interruption. "Come in."

The door opened to reveal Sam with a tablet in her hands. "I'm not disturbing am I?"

"You know you actually do, so come on in," he said and threw the rapport to the side in a pile of other half-read reports.

"Another one you're going to read later?"

"Something like that." He knew that she knew he would not read it later, but he did not care, he was at the top of the chain of command and no one could tell him what to read. "Now what brings you here?"

"I came to deliver this report." She handed him the tablet but he just put it on the desk along with some of the other things he needed to go through.

"Just give me the short version."

"We have finished the field testing of the new Asuran prototypes and I have signed of on them, the chance that they will become a threat to us should be minimal."

"Great, then we can speed up the repairs to the shipyard and get Teal'c and the expedition moving."

"Yes. I have taken the liberty of creating a training program for nanite handlers to increase the number of people who can use them properly."

"You're free to do as you wish with them Carter as long as they're safe and effective."

"Thank you Sir."

"Sure. How long until you can have the shipyard operating at normal capacity?"

"I don't even know what normal capacity is Sir. But we should be able to have Athyl fully repaired in a matter of months with enough handlers."

"Well then, you better get back so we can have that shipyard ready soon."

"I actually hoped to talk to you about that. I had hoped that someone would be relieving me soon Sir. I know we have people here on Atlantis capable of performing oversight duty who are sit around doing nothing."

"You have something you'd rather be doing?"

"With McKay gone I had hoped to help Zelenka lead the research department."

"That's not going to happen at the moment. What's most important at the moment is that we can get Teal'c going. I think checking out four galaxies will take him long enough without the delays of putting you on R&D."

"Yes Sir." Her mood had dropped quite a bit by the news. Any normal day she knew that Jack would have done it without putting up too much of a fight, but now he did not budge.

"No need to go sour over that, I'll have someone relieve soon." He had been digging through one of the piles of papers and tablets and pulled out a tablet which was close to the bottom of the pile. "But I have a side task I think should suite you just fine."

"What is it Sir?"

"Something to keep you occupied on Athyl until someone relieves you, as long as things go smooth on Athyl I think you could work on this, on the side of course. You can check the tablet when you're back on Athyl."

"Yes Sir, thank you." With those words she grabbed the tablet from his hand and walked out of the small office."

* * *

It was nice to be working in familiar settings, like those of McMurdo Air Force Base, and not some dark and damp village in the backwaters of Pegasus or in the deep jungles of South America. Here he could sterilise his equipment and perform surgeries without flies landing in the wound. He got to help those that needed his help the most just like he always wanted to. He just had one small problem, he was trying to repair his best friends left arm, without any anesthetic. Helping him were three nurses and another doctor, the patient's girlfriend. To top it all of each and everyone in the room had a bodyguard, some low level privates who did not seem to have taken a shower in weeks and they were not there to keep them safe but rather to keep them in check. If anyone tried anything they would be on the receiving end of their guns.

"Carson, care to finish any time soon?" the patient scowled, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"Sorry Rodney." The apology seemed to be ignored by his patient who kept complaining.

It took another couple of hours to patch up the arm as good as they could with what they had. Then the guards rolled out the patient, Rodney would get to rest for a few days before he was sent back out into the crater with the rest. Rodney had just been rolled out when the guards came back with the next patient. Six hours of sleep each day was apparently all the guards thought anyone but themselves needed. What was important however was that they had just managed to implant a new tracker into Rodney's arm without anyone noticing during the surgery. When the others came to rescue them they would at least have some way of finding them and that hope was what kept them going under the abuse of their guards. Another thing that kept them going was the comradery between those kept there, everyone had been with the SGC at some point. But to avoid rescue from the former SGC personnel everyone had their subspace transmitters ripped out when they were brought there. He had had to dig out his own when he was brought there. He had been tending to some people wounded in the battle between the Alterran and Goa'uld ships in Europe when they came to collect him. The hospital's guards and the soldiers he tended to had been killed before his eyes as their capturers had come to collect him. Rodney had been collected from a crashed jumper minutes after the explosion and his girlfriend had been sleeping in their bed in their house in Chippewa Falls when they kicked down the door and pulled her outside in her underwear.

* * *

"Preparing to leave hyperspace," the nav officer said

"I want gunners on the four main guns and twelve of the turrets," Katana roared out.

A couple of seconds later the ship dropped out a few kilometers in front of the gate. As far as the sensors could detect there was nothing but the Ori supergate out there but they still retracted the armour plates which covered the weapons they deployed. Normally all weapons and the hangar was covered by thick armour plates but when they deployed the plates would move aside. While this was happening Sheppard had arrived on the bridge and had begun to dial the gate. A few seconds later the gate activated and the wormhole formed.

"The Phaeacians have arrived to bring you home." General O'Neill had forced him to remember the passphrase which he was to send to the Odyssey.

-Then the Odyssey will return home.- The response came and the gate shut down, within a second it begun to dial in.

"Man all weapons." Shepard's tone left little to argue about and he could feel the rest of the weapons deploy through the pillar. He knew something was wrong on the Odyssey, their reply should have been: _Then Odyssey have finished her journey, for now._ A thought from him activated the ship's cloak and gave the pilot a set of coordinates.

"I thought this ship was yours?" Katana's voice was filled to the brim with suspicion.

"So did I. But I don't think our people are in control any more." His head was going from side to side faster than anyone thought possible before his gaze locked onto one of his men. "You, take over here. If anything other than the Odyssey comes through that gate you take it out with the drones. Cloak and use the FTL drive if things get too ugly."

"Yes Sir," the man said. He had been brought along to assist the Travelers if the crew got stuck on any system, but now it seemed he got a new role. Of course Sheppard had brought along people to help with just about everything else on the ship too, something he was happy he had done at the moment. "Crown, Cadman you're with me. Major Gant, what do you need to pilot the Odyssey?"

"Two capable men at the least Sir," came a quick response from the woman who was standing at the back of the bridge with the other two women.

"Cooper, Kleinman, that's your que. Lieutenant Edison's team will be you escort."

"Yes Sir" rang out, but he had already stormed past them towards the hangar.

Outside the ship the gate finished dialing and the wormhole formed. Somewhere from the other side a message was transmitted on repeat. -Those who are prideful and refuse to bow down shall be laid low and made into dust.-


	11. Chapter 11

They had circled the area where the antarctic outpost had been for half an hour in the jumper before the Lieutenant looked up from the readings. "Scan shows no signs of the outpost Sir, but we are picking up hundreds of scavengers in the crater."

"We can clear them out later. First we need to find the hangar where they built those ships," Major Rutherford replied.

"Already scanning for any large energy signatures, shouldn't be too hard to find with all the power outages across the globe." Across the globe many major cities had lacked power when they arrived but everyone seemed to be calm, there were no riots in the streets and even thieves and criminals stayed indoors. The only ones who were outside were the soldiers who patrolled the streets, armed with automatic weapons and dressed in full body armour. "Sir, I'm detecting something beneath the Arctic ice. It's using the majority of Earth's electricity."

"Then that's where we're going."

* * *

Sheppard and his nine men had arrived in the Retribution's hangar twenty seconds after he had left the bridge. A new record he thought as the hangar doors shifted to allow them to leave in the jumpers. Outside the ship the Odyssey had just arrived through the supergate and was scanning for the cloaked ship. Then, a few seconds later, the gate's surface was broken as an Ori ship arrived through it, followed by five more within the next ten seconds. By the time they had all arrived and the gate had shut down again a thick, long swarm of drones had left the Retribution, prompting the pilot to move the cloaked ship again. By this time Sheppard was just flying the first jumper out of the hangar while Edison was following right behind him in the ship's second jumper. Angling the jumper tight backwards he flew the jumper over the Retribution towards the Odyssey which was trying to take down the drones with its quick railgun before they could reach the Ori ships. Only seconds later the first drone exploded against the Ori shields, then a hundred more followed it before six drones pierced the shield and begun to drill through the hull, creating explosions as they did. When they finally ran out of power they exploded and ripped the ship to pieces. With one down and five more to go the swarm moved on to the next. From the relative safety of the jumper Sheppard watched the numbers of drones fall quickly as they impacted the enemy shields and he could feel the dread crawling over him. A single drone in the right place would be enough to take out almost any ship, but now they had to sacrifice a large part of their storage just to let that single drone through the shield. Still he had more pressing matters to attend to because the Odyssey's hangar was just ahead of them and he was bringing them in for a landing. "I hope everyone has checked their shields and weapons already." He had brought his Alterran SMG to complement the Alterran and Tau'ri pistols, just like Crown, Cadman and Edison's team. The others had only their Alterran pistols since they normally only manned ships and should not see combat personally. The hangar they had landed in was packed with Ori soldiers and crates so Sheppard let Edison attack from the front of the hangar while he parked his jumper behind some crates at the back and begun to flank the Ori soldiers. The forty or so Ori soldiers in the hangar lost more than half of their numbers before they realised they had been flanked and turned to defend their rear. To his right Sheppard could see something moving and a few seconds later the Ori were again flanked by two of Edison's men. In under a minute the hangar had been cleaned and the three crew members were called out of the jumper.

-Colonel, we're out of drones and falling back to a safe distance. There's two Ori ships left.-

"Copy that Captain, if this ship jumps away you fall back to the rendezvous and wait a few hours," he responded through his com badge.

-See you there Sir.-

"You heard him, we're on our own people. So get a move on."

* * *

The jumper dove through the surface of the ocean and down into the icy water of the Arctic Ocean. In a matter of seconds the water around them went completely black and for several minutes they navigated on sensor data alone towards the anomaly. When they came over Gerkel Ridge deep down in the ocean they could see lights moving around deep down. A thought from the Major sent the jumper diving down along the side of the ridge towards the bottom. About halfway down the ridge they saw several new lights appearing and growing in size rapidly. Two seconds later the jumper crashed into a huge air pocket that raced to the surface. The sudden impact of air confused the internal dampeners when they returned to solid water seconds later so much that the jumper was sent tumbling into the side of the ridge. As the four members of Rutherford's team got back on their feet inside the jumper they could see four large ships rising side by side past the viewport, followed by several more groups. By the time the ships had all passed by they had managed to restore power to the jumper and slowly they continued the descent down to the bottom of the ocean to find out what they had done down there.

* * *

Back on the Odyssey Sheppard and his group had just managed to shoot their way into one of the corridors leading to the bridge and the resistance was still fierce. A tap on his trigger took out a soldier hiding in a door opening, to his right Crown was sneaking up along the wall to the door. When she came to the door she took two steps past the door to the other side while spraying everything inside the room. With the room clear the group moved on to the bridge. During the short distance to the entrance to the bridge everyone but two men switched to pistols to keep structural damage to a minimum on the bridge. The two men still equipped with SMGs followed the others inside the bridge but took up positions on either side of the door, meanwhile Sheppard had rushed the bridge, which was coloured by the view of hyperspace, with his pistol firing at anything which moved. Anyone who survived Sheppard's rush was picked of by the rest who followed right behind him. The bridge crew had fallen in a matter of seconds and within the next minute Gant, Cooper and Kleinman had gotten rid of the bodies from their stations.

"What's our destination?" Sheppard asked the three man crew. From outside the corridor the sound of fighting intensified as more Ori soldiers converged on the bridge.

"I can't say Sir, we're being towed by an Ori ship," Crown replied from the pilot's seat.

"Sir, the Ori ship's shield is down in hyperspace, a well placed strike would take out the ship," Kleinman said.

"We would need our shield to survive that at this distance Lieutenant," Major Gant pointed out. "And we can't raise the shield without access to the Asgard core."

"Prepare the ship then. Crown, Cadman, let's get a move on." By the time he gave the order Sheppard was already moving out of the bridge him his SMG raised to take out any targets in his path.

By circling back the way they came to the bridge Sheppard and his duo avoided the bulk of the Ori soldiers who were still streaming towards the bridge from somewhere on the ship, at least until they reach the Asgard core. Inside the room Ori soldiers were being beamed in six at a time by what looked like a technician standing at the Asgard core. He was quickly relieved of that duty when Cadman came into the room and put a hole through his head. Right behind her were the other two who sealed the door behind them and hurried to seal the other door too while the Ori soldiers turned around to face them.

"We're back in control Sir," Cadman announced from the Core. "Shields are back up and I'm beginning to beam away the Ori soldiers."

After shooting two Ori soldiers and missing a third who was beamed away Sheppard stepped back into the room and sealed the door. "Major, you have a go," he said into the com badge.

-Copy that Colonel. Firing Asgard weapons in three, two, one, mark.-

A split second after she finished the countdown everyone in the room were thrown to the floor when the ship was pushed to the side by the explosion from the Ori ship. When the ship stabilised a few seconds later they got off the floor. "Major, what's our status?"

-Sensors are showing nothing around the ship and a decreasing number of lifesigns on the ship.-

"Take us to the rendezvous."

* * *

On Athyl Sam had just arrived through the gate and a swarm of personnel were waiting for her.

"Colonel, we need you to sign this so we can begin construction of six more Traveller cruisers," a blonde, short man asked politely. Because of its size the Retribution class had been called Traveller cruisers while their smaller ships had been dubbed frigates.

"Have Larrin do it."

The man just managed to get out of the way when six other people tried to take his place. "Colonel you need…"

"Get in line and I'll see each and everyone of you in my office one at a time," she shouted and pushed them out of the way. A series of quick steps brought her away from the crowd and into the nearby transporter. She emerged a few levels beneath the gate, in the administrative section and rushed to her office where her assistant was sitting and going through piles of documents.

A sweet "Good morning ma'am" greeted her the moment she stepped through the door.

"Good morning Katy, unless it's extremely important I think you can handle today's duties. I have something I need to do at the moment," she said while she walked through the foyer to her office.

"Yes ma'am," came the reply as the door slid shut right behind her and she was in her sanctuary, her office and lab. She had half a dozen simulations to run and another hundred design problems to solve on the Hermes project, their new exploration ship, but the datapad Jack had given her was her focus for the moment. A few quick taps with her fingers connected it to the rooms holographic display and diagrams of two crafts, quite obviously fighters, of Alterran design were shown in the middle of the room. The smallest one was obviously made to be small, fast and dirt cheap, but it did come with four forward fixed mounts where she could see them mounting railguns and a shield which was equal to that of a jumper. At three times two times half a meter it was by far the smallest fighter she had seen and it meant it would have to be unmanned. The second one was a little longer than two jumpers but about the same width and height as a jumper and with a much more aggressive look. On top of each of the two rear wings it had a weak pulse turret mounted with one additional above and below the main hull and a single one mounted straight forward on the nose of the ship. Its shield was slightly stronger than that of an Al'kesh, but it was still unmanned. The next file on the tablet again showed her two ships, but these did not vary as much as the two before. They had a shape very much like the shuttles carried by Destiny but with wings curving slightly upwards instead of down. Neither was meant to be unmanned and both were equipped with decent shields. The one with weaker shields only had two turret mounts, but it made up for that with a cloak in addition to the shield and an FTL-drive that gave it a decent push, making it something of a cloaked scout. The other one was much more like a gunship as it had no cloak and no FTL drive, instead it had five weapon mounts plus two high energy mounts where she could probably fit weak versions of the Asgard Plasma Beams. The other mounts on both ships would have to settle for railguns. Next followed a rapport by an Alterran scientist which discussed the war with the Wraith and the reason why the Wraith were winning the war. It was well over five hundred pages long and dry as an oblate, so she skipped past the majority to the end where it was concluded that the Alterra needed to make up lost ground by taking away the Wraith's advantage in numbers. The suggestion was to use the ships in the previous files to even out the numbers and launch them from a ship described in the next file. At the end of the file a set of coordinates had been attached a few years later. When she tried to open the last file the supercomputer in the room froze for a couple of minutes before yet another hologram was projected into the room. It was truly massive in size and put even the Wraith hive ships to shame. The Wraith hive with its two kilometer length was only half the size of this beast, but it was almost the same width and height. The front the ship was formed into a sloping tip which reminded of a hawk's head and further back it got wider until it reached its maximum at thirteen hundred meters and begun to decrease slightly. The last quarter of the ship was separated by a narrow section of the ship to separate systems needed to run the ship from the huge hangar which could house several hundred thousand of the smaller ships. On the top of the ship a trench, just over two point two kilometers long and two hundred and fifty meters wide, allowed Auroras and similar ships to land and dock. The ship itself was armed with three Alterran beam turrets, like those on the defence satellite found in the Lantean system, over two hundred point defence turrets and drones. Those weapons would see it safe through almost any fight, even without the class five shield, only Alterran dome shields, like those in Atlantis and their outposts would be tougher when powered by several ZPMs. All this power was controlled from a two hundred meter long and a hundred and twenty meter wide bridge which was sitting near the back of the ship on a raised platform which would retract during battles. If fielded it would be the single biggest ship encountered by the Alterra, with the exception of the big black ship which had been going around the universe for millions of years. It would be a terror for the Wraith, their hives and their cruisers, it was the Nest.


	12. Chapter 12

"Colonel the ship's cleared of hostiles," Cadman announced from the Asgard console.

"Good work. Time to pack up, we're going back to the bridge," Sheppard praised while he unlocked both doors to the room.

"Yes Sir," the two women said as they retrieved their weapons.

There was a short distance between the bridge and the Asgard core but just a few dozen meters from the bridge Sheppard heard a scream behind him. When he spun around he heard another shout and felt a sharp pain cutting into his head. Now in front of him was both Crown and Cadman twisting around on the floor in pain and what he could only assume was a prior standing over them with his staff in his hand. From the crystal at the top of the staff a white light was enveloping the entire corridor. "Do not fight it. Embrace the light and be saved. Eternal bliss awaits you."

"Then i… it c.. it can wait." Even as he felt a massive force pressing down on his shoulders and pressing him down on one knee he managed to raise his right arm. In his right hand he held his weapon and he pressed the trigger, in response the prior called fort a shield which absorbed the energy the weapon spit forward. Then a bang rang out and the prior stumbled backwards. With one hand he tried to heal the open wound on his chest but his attention had wavered for a few seconds and the shield failed. With the shield down Sheppard filled the prior with holes before collapsing on the floor.

A few seconds later he had recovered enough to get off the floor and he could see the pistol in Crown's hand which was pointed in the direction of the prior. It took him two seconds to realize that neither Crown nor Cadman planned to get up and to fall to his knees between them. With quick hands he pressed his fingers to both the women's necks but he there was no pulse beating inside either of them. "Two men down in the bridge access corridor," he shouted into his com badge, but the others had already heard the commotion and were running to his aid. "Major make sure the Retribution's med bay is ready for us."

"Yes Sir," she responded and ran back to the bridge.

Next to him two marines from Edison's team had started performing CPR on the two women while Edison and the others were ready to take over when needed. Sheppard meanwhile took a firm grip around the priors leg and pulled him away, he had something special in mind for him and his friends.

* * *

Sam had been studying the Nest, as O'Neill had chosen to translate it from Alterran, for well over twelve hours. The details of the design was amazing down to the scale that she could go into every single control crystal and change it slightly to see how the change would affect the entire ship. It was still not complete though and it lacked several key systems which the Alterra had never got the chance to fix, but she was sure that the Asgard core held plenty of solutions. One of the largest problems for the ship was its shield, it was already huge so any extra armour would be too expensive and cumbersome so it would rely solely on shields, the problem was that the Alterra did not have a good enough shield matrix and shield emitters that could produce a shield of that size. Then there was the three main beam weapons that, along with the rest of the ship, did not have an energy source capable of delivering enough power for a long enough time. It was this last problem that the Arcturus reactor had hoped to solve, but she hoped the Asgard had something to solve both of these problems and the hundreds of smaller problems. When she closed the file she opened a holographic star map and entered the coordinates from the rapport. Above her head the stars changed and twisted as it tried to locate the coordinates. When it stopped she saw a number of solar systems at the edge of the hologram and a large empty sphere at the center with the word "Classified" written across it in Alterran. When she zoomed out the hologram she quickly found a blue dot which showed her location, only a few solar systems from the coordinates.

"Katy do we have any ships scheduled for a test flight any time soon?" she said into her com badge.

-Katy's finished her shift already ma'am,- her second assistant replied. Sam's new Lantean nature meant that she needed two assistants to cover her own work time. -According to the station's log the only ship we have available is Larrin's retrofitted ship ma'am.-

"Tell her to ready the ship for a short tripp."

-Yes ma'am,- came the reply while she was throwing together some things in a backpack to bring with her.

Two point three minutes later she burst out of her office and into the foyer where still dozen of people waited to talk to her, but she ignored them and hurried on into a transporter booth that sent her down to the hangar. In the hangar she activated a pair of rings hidden in the floor and when they fell back down again she was onboard Larrin's ship.

* * *

In a galaxy, quite literally, far far away Mokar's journey came to an end when his shuttle dropped out of FTL close to the very center of the galaxy. As it did the shuttle sounded an automatic alarm to wake up any passengers who were still sleeping, such as Mokar. In the back of the ship four beds could be folded down, out of the wall, and on one of these Mokar had been sleeping until the alarm woke him up. Because it was such a long journey most Alterra had reported it to be a serene and peaceful experience, but as he had approached his destination he had gotten a bad headache which only got worse the closer he got. And he knew that was not normal for an Alterran to have, but then nothing about this was normal. Outside the shuttle he could see the solar system where he had meant to arrive and two of the planets in it while the other eight had been crushed into dust and rocks. Before his eyes a bright blue star in the distance, but still one of the closest ones, flashed and exploded while the remaining two planets were flash burnt by the wave of only seconds after. Quickly he begun to retake manual control of the shuttle and banked right to outrun it, but he knew the engines were still too hot. Five seconds later he had turned the shuttle around and activated the FTL-drive, for almost half a minute he sat there and waited, then the FTL-drive overloaded and a series of small explosions sent it spinning without control. When he managed to stabilise the shuttle he tuned the sensors to detect gamma radiation and on a screen he could see the wave of radiation rolling towards him. As the minutes passed by the wave rolled ever closer and when he tried to raise what little shield the shuttle had it glimmered to life for a second before the cabin was filled with smoke from the burning shield emitter. When the radiation wave was within a meter of the ship it split and flowed right around the ship as if a shield had formed around it. It took well over two hours before the radiation had decreased to acceptable levels and the protective bubble disappeared moments after. During the two hours he was waiting in the shuttle he could see several spontane explosions which appeared around the ship and were deflected. A few seconds after the radiation levels had decreased to acceptable levels he could feel someone or something coming towards him from the back of the shuttle. It was far from a surprise to him when he saw one of his ascended kin coming through the aft wall with its white tentacles licking the walls and the roof.

" _You can show your true form to me, I know well what you are," he said._

" _It has been long since we talked to one of our own who has not yet ascended"_ the being replied while its form shifted slightly to show a feminine and very human face along with the outlines of a human body. " _I think this is as close as I can get to my true form here without returning entirely to your form."_

" _It is fine my friend, it is only that I am not used to conversations with energy based beings. It is slightly unnerving that you can kill me with a thought."_ He could feel the doubt in the ascended woman's voice and he was as unsure himself about how to handle the situation even if he was the one who had sought them out.

" _I assure you that I will not harm you. But there are others who would do so if they knew about you."_ As if on cue she turned around and formed a shield in front of her moments before an energy blast evaporated the back of the shuttle. The moment the blast vanished she had already formed an energy bolt of her own and threw it back into the emptiness of space, which turned out to be not so empty when it exploded against a weak shield. A second follow up blast from the ascended woman exploded in the same place, but this time there was no shield to stop it, instead the blast sent millions of shards, which reminded him of colored glass, flying in all directions.

" _Perhaps you can take me to a more friendly environment for a longer conversation?"_

The woman looked puzzled at him then seemed to come to realization and formed a protective bubble around them. The speed at which they moved at surprised him as he saw hundreds of solar systems flash by in a matter of seconds before they came to a dead stop just a few centimeters above the ground of a lush world. " _It has been so long since any of us required oxygen that I had forgotten about it."_

" _It is alright sister, memory fades over time. But I am still surprised that one of our kin would attack us."_

The posture of the woman changed significantly when she heard it " _I would have thought one of our kin would have known about the Ori."_

" _Of course but the humans from Avalon fought a war and won against them,"_ he said as they walked through a field of red and yellow flowers.

" _I would have asked you to tell that to the Ori who I just killed, but seeing as he is dead I have to find us another one."_ Her tone was sharp and cold.

" _Then why did the Ori crusade end?"_

" _Because the seeded managed to take out the Ori leaders and cause chaos in their ranks."_ Her tone softened up slightly as they left the field and crossed into a forest with giant trees, hundreds of meters high and with blue leafs. " _But I will admit that they helped our fight too."_

" _I wasn't aware that there had been any fighting with the Ori on your plane of existence."_ The news was shocking for him, he had thought the Tau'ri had been the only ones to battle with the Ori.

" _You have seen how fast we can travel and the Ori could move just as fast before. Had we known that the Ori themselves would follow their soldiers we would have destroyed their gates before they could use them. Their crusade managed to drain our power while they boosted the Ori's. We lost the galaxies of Shaban, Aryg, Mubt, Annwn, Opar and Thuleanor, they even managed to take Avery before we managed to organise ourselves and put a stop to their advance. We managed to turn back several assaults on Darecian at a heavy cost. Then they lost the majority of their power and we gained a good boost. At the moment we are chasing them back through Libee and we hope to have them out of our territory soon."_

" _So will you chase after them back to Freya and end this? Your guidance would be most helpful."_

" _I fear that will not be happening,"_ she said and looked upwards to the large blue leaves. " _The ascended realm is in constant war and the Ori cut a long and bloody path through hundreds of other territories. We would have moved in and secured the territory but we have been under siege for as long as we can remember. When we first ascended we had to take our current territory from another group of ascended beings."_

" _I understand sister,"_ he said and saw her look up again. " _They're calling for you?"_

" _Yes, everyone is needed to drive the Ori back before their followers can be converted back to Origin."_

" _Before they regain their powers you mean,"_ he said in understanding. " _When they do that they will come after you again."_

" _Yes, as you should know we gain power from those on your plane believing in us, either voluntarily or by force like the Ori does. The seeded in one of the new galaxies have been a great help along with those in Avalon who still believe in us. Believe me brother when I say that we all want you to rebuild our empire again, it would strengthen us to the point where we could push away anyone from our borders and aid your efforts. We will help if we can brother, but I can not promise you anything."_ With another look upwards she begun to float away but before she disappeared away a small white orb floated down into his open hands and formed a data storage unit. A few meters above the ground she stopped and looked down on him one last time. " _One of our scouts in Avalon report that they have just destroyed a small Ori fleet which came through the gate. The wraith do not yet know about you and what you are doing, it would be wise if you cleaned up Avalon before you go after the wraith. Deal with the parasitic nuisance of the Goa'uld before they become a threat, then seal the Ori gate. After that you will have a core fleet to bring down on the wraith. Be wary brother, there is another who is just as evolved as you are, we do not have the time to deal with it but you will have no choice."_ With those words she was gone and he was alone to find the planet's gate.


	13. Chapter 13

"Colonel Carter" Larrin greeted her when she came onto the bridge. They had been in transit for a few minutes before she had gotten there.

"Captain. How's the new upgrades?" Sam asked with a smile.

"Everything seems to be working as it should and we don't need nearly as large a crew" she replied along with a smile of her own. "But I wouldn't have minded if it was one of the larger ships."

"We have begun construction of three more and you seem to be leading the Travelers we've hired, so why not go ahead of the line and take the next one?"

"There is already a line forming of captains who have lost their ships to receive new ships from you."

"Do they all know that those ships are bound to us and that we will not allow them to take the ships back with them if they leave our service?" Just as she finished the sentence the ship left hyperspace and arrived over a long dead world.

"We all know, but there are many who see you as our last chance at survival. Of course there are many others who think you are using us. But we can talk about this later when we don't have a job to do."

"Of course." She had walked over to a nearby station where she pulled up the ship's sensor readings. "We're looking for anything which could come from the Alterra."

"There's no gate within sensor range" someone reported.

As the minutes passed the sensors only showed the same rocky planet which showed no signs of life ever existing there or even visiting briefly. Then the minutes turned into hours without them detecting something. After three hours and thorough scans of the other six small planetoids they suddenly got something on their scanners from the planet they had firstly arrived over.

Suddenly the bridge was full of action as the ship begun to descend down through the atmosphere and everyone prepared for a worst case scenario. When the ship was a few hundred meters above the surface the ground begun to roll up to reveal a large metal plate which was several thousand meters long and over a thousand wide. This metal plate then folded outwards to allow access to the ribcage of a very large ship.

* * *

"Move it people, move it" someone shouted while Crown and Cadman were lifted into the room by soldiers. "Get the scanners ready."

The two patients had been beamed over from the Odyssey after receiving CPR for half an hour. "Put them over there" the doctor in charge ordered while gesturing for two of the six beds in the room. She would do all she could for them but they showed no signs of anything she thought she could cure, then that had always been part of the job with the SGC.

* * *

Sheppard was standing in front of his creation and as his rage was starting to settle down he realised that he might have overdone it slightly.

-Colonel Sheppard, the Retribution have received both women. They have been taken to the infirmary-

"Thank you for the notice Major, set a course for Earth. We will pick up the jumper under cloak and meet up with the others back at Atlantis."

-Copy that Colonel, we'll relay the order.-

"I will need a few minutes for myself now." He did not wait for a reply before turning of his com badge and turning all his focus towards the prior.

It was true that everything could be solved with cable ties, duct tape and vaseline and the Asgard core had created it all for him. With cable ties he had fastened the prior's hands to a support which ran along the roof and his feet to the vertical supports that lined the wall. Then he had 'repaired' the prior's clothes with a knife and some duct tape until he looked more like a beggar than a priest of an alien religion. Lastly he had stuffed vaseline into the man to make him slightly 'fluffier'.

He knew he had gone over the edge with crazy here, but only the other priors would see it. He would make sure any evidence of what he had done was gone before anyone else could see it.

Next to the prior lay the staff that the prior had clutched even in death and only when Sheppard had hung him from the roof had the staff fallen to the floor. Now he reached down to grab the staff, the moment he touched the staff he could feel his mind connecting to at least twenty other minds which each and everyone belonged to a prior. Then there was something else in the background which seemed to be pressing itself into his mind but he would not allow it to dig into his mind, he had already sent the message he meant to and by the disturbed thoughts of the others he knew it had struck home. With the message delivered he did what he planned on doing from the start and put the staff back into the prior's hand before walking out of the airlock and sealing the door behind him. Still with his back towards the door he pressed a button and the outer hatch opened to suck the prior and everything else in the room out of the ship.

With that taken care of he headed back to the bridge to find that the ship had already arrived in the solar system and was heading for Earth under cloak. Through the forward viewport they could see some fifty ships circling the planet with an additional sixteen coming and going through hyperspace. As they approached the stimm of ships Captain Cooper, who was the pilot, switched over to manual controls and put them in orbit right between two of the 305s.

* * *

-Major Rutherford do you read?- Colonel Sheppard's voice rang out from the jumper's speakers. They had been observing the fifty nine concrete hangars on the bottom of the ocean for several hours and during that time hundreds of submarines had arrived with parts strapped to their hulls while other parts had been dropped from ships on the surface. No matter where the parts had come from they had mostly been taken to the hangars before they had been sealed up again. What parts were left over were large amounts of concrete bricks heading for a group of new hangars where the foundations had just been laid.

"Colonel Sheppard we read you loud and clear" the Major replied.

-Have you managed to locate the hangars?-

"Yes Sir. We have located fifty nine hangars deep under the Arctic ocean, I believe we arrived just as a group of ships were taken into service."

-Fifty nine new ships? That could cause some trouble for us-

"Yes Sir, but they're already working on the next group and they seem to have all the parts they need already." Because he knew that their mission was soon over he willed the jumper up from the seabed and let it rise slowly towards the surface.

-Good observation Major.- In the background he could hear other voices and a few muted words from the Colonel.

"Thank you Sir. The jumper's loaded with drones, we could make sure some of those hangars can't be used again."

-No Major, we want them to keep all their production here so we can take it all out at once.-

"Yes Sir."

-What about the outpost and the gate?-

"Scans showed nothing of use but we saw hundreds of scavs who seemed to be based at McMurdo Air Force Base out in the blast crater Sir."

-Get back down there Major, we're picking up a weak subspace signal from the area. We're ready to beam your team to safety when you need extraction.-

"Yes Sir." Everyone in the jumper had hoped their mission would have been done so they could return to Atlantis but as the jumper slowly rose out of the water they knew it would have to wait while duty called. The reason they wanted back to Atlantis was not because they had all been living in the city for years now but rather because of what they had seen while going from the former south pole to the former north pole. While a straight route would have been the best for the mission they had all felt the same and Rutherford didn't even need to talk to the others before he set a course for Australia which was where the two sergeants in his team came from. They had both lived in the same small mining town before joining the Australian Defence Force but when they had flown over the area they had found a deep hole in the ground with thousands of people mining under slave like conditions. Around the edge hundreds of crosses had been raised and on some of them people had been crucified.

At the sight the Major had quickly gotten the jumper up to speed, he knew his people well and the two Australians had a short temper even when someone was only making fun of their home this would have caused an armed retaliation if they got the chance. When they saw thick and black smoke rising up and covering the sky as they came up on the Lieutenant's home in India the Major had changed their course straight away for a direct path for the Arctic ocean.

What they had seen there was the reason they wanted back to Atlantis, not to flee from their problems and drench their sorrow with something from the bar in Atlantis even if they would all toast in memory of those who died when everything was done, they wanted back to Atlantis to plan some payback.

* * *

Over the frozen ground a siren was screaming out the signal for the guards to herd them back to the base and McKay's guards seemed all too eager to get back inside the warmth of the base. They waved their weapons back and forth between the thirty people the five were guarding. From time to time they fired of a round against their legs to make them hurry on for a while.

When the group was only a few kilometers from the outer perimeter one of the less sober guards thought it was his time to do some shooting and so he pressed the trigger and fired round after round. It ended when one of the other guards slammed the butt of his own rifle into the side the first guards head but by then the damage was already done.

Five bullets had hit McKay when he had jumped for cover behind a boulder, two had cut through his right thigh, one had shattered the right side of his pelvis, another had pierced his left arm and the last one had gone clean through his left shoulder. While the boulder had caught half a dozen more bullets those that hit made him collapse face first into the muddy snow which quickly turned red while his bloody slowly leaked out of his body.

The shooting caused a heated argument amongst the guards about who would support the wounded, not the wounded workers like himself but two guards who had been graced by bullets. While the argument went on he heard several bangs as shots were fired, then one bang sounded and he could see the drunk guard falling down next to him with a hole gaping through his head.

When the guns fell silent he saw the guards stomping through the snow back towards the base.


	14. Chapter 14

"Sir, we have arrived in position over McMurdo Air Force Base and are awaiting instructions" Major Rutherford said inside the jumper, which had a channel open to the cloaked Odyssey that was hanging around in orbit between two of the new 305s. Outside the jumper a blizzard was raging that made everything a solid white mass.

-Stand by Major we have lost the signal- Colonel Sheppard's voice came back through the speakers. Inside the jumper the four soldier's begun to feel their eyelids getting heavy while they waited for several minutes until the Colonel's voice woke them. -We have an approximate location of its last transmitted location, scout it and see what you can find-

"Yes Sir." The jumper had been sitting a few hundred meters above the ground but now it slowly descended towards the coordinates they had received. It took the jumper's sensors only a few seconds of systematic sweeps of the general area to detect a small group of weak lifesigns which were fading.

In the back of the jumper two of the men grabbed all the extra clothes they had brought and hurried to get dressed. Meanwhile the co-pilot was adjusting the inertial dampeners to cope with the extreme winds outside the craft. As the craft came down it lowered its cloak and changed to shields while the aft hatch opened and the two men jumped out into the waist deep snow. Through his com badge the Major guided his men with the help of the sensors towards the few lifesigns that still remained.

"Major" the Lieutenant, his co-pilot, shouted from the back of the jumper as the other two returned the first three they managed to get out of the snow before hurrying back outside. "You need to see this."

"It'll have to wait Lieutenant there's still people out there" Rutherford replied and just had time to switch the microphone in the jumper back on when the Lieutenant spoke again. "Sir, it's Doctor McKay."

* * *

-We lost him Sir- Everyone on Odyssey's bridge heard it over the open channel from the jumper. Sheppard had hoped that his friends who had been on Earth when they lost contact were still alive, then they had seen the crater and he had lost that hope. Now they had found McKay only to lose him again seconds later and he was pissed. -He was delirious when we pulled him inside. He was rambling about Murdo, Jennifer and Carson even as he drew his final breath.-

"McMurdo Air Force base, finish up what you're doing and head over there. See if you can confirm the presence of Doctor Keller and Doctor Beckett there" Sheppard ordered. He was standing right behind the captain's chair and supported himself on the chair.

-Yes Sir- the Major replied over the radio.

"Captain prepare the ship for descent, we're getting them out of there."

"Yes Sir" Major Gant replied from the captain's chair. "Do you want us to sneak in slowly under cloak or go in as fast as we can and frighten them?"

"We'll sneak in Major, pick up anyone we've lost and shoot our way out" Sheppard responded. "Aim to create as much damage as this ship can when we leave. As long as it's a military target you're free to fire at anything until we leave the planet."

While still under cloak the ship dropped quickly through the atmosphere towards the base and crashed through the cloudformation between them and the base, leaving a gaping hole in the clouds which begun to seal itself a few seconds after. The moment they pierced the storm they dropped the cloak and raised the ship's shields, there was no way even the primitive 305s above would fail to detect the hole in the clouds.

* * *

The guards of the afternoon shift had just been allowed to go to sleep when the alarm sounded and their commander rushed into the barracks. In minutes everyone who was stationed at McMurdo were fully dressed in combat gear and were rushing outside to deal with whatever had set of the outer perimeter detectors. From the southeast the soldiers could see something large pushing down the low clouds even lower. Some begun to launch grenades and fire heavier weapons at it but the low clouds kept coming towards the base

Unknown to the defenders the cloaked jumper had already approached from the north and its occupants were already searching through the western barracks, taking out anyone hostile and directing the survivors back to a barrack they had secured and which former SGC guards were holding. With the barracks cleared several minutes later the four man team moved on to the main compound.

While the ground team was covering things on the ground and sweeping the base Odyssey was slowly emerging from the dense clouds which had begun to break up due to the force of the ship's engines. While it crept from the cover of the clouds some of the defenders realised just what they were up against. With most screaming in panic they begun to fall back to the base, but the Odyssey was ready and let its railguns target anyone who tried to run away from the soldiers who were still trying to take down the ship with their weapons.

While the soldiers were blown to pieces the ground team had cleared out most of the main building and were fighting their way into the corridor which lead to the infirmary. With precise accuracy and quick bursts the team disabled or killed their opponents and dashed between crates, furniture and anything else which was standing in the corridor that they could use for cover. Three minutes earlier when they had stormed the commander's office they had been faced with two men who had used guns which ripped through their shields, something the Lieutenant had been made aware of when he took multiple shots to his legs. Luckily for him his team had taken care of them and had patched him up well enough for him to walk, now he was providing cover fire from the back of the corridor for his team mates.

As the last of the soldiers outside the infirmary got his head blown off the door behind him opened and another soldier who must have thought he was Rambo came out with two SMGs, one in each hand. Before he even had the chance to fire his weapons the soldier was shot through the chest from the team in front of him and from someone behind.

"Hold your fire." The Major had recognised the two doctors who stood on the other side of the door. Their white coats were coated in crimson red stains which had come from their patients and Doctor Beckett's left arm was hanging limp at his side completely covered in blood.

"Colonel we have located the targets." The Major said into his com badge. He and his team had made their way into the infirmary's waiting room and was doing what they could to create cover in front of the door. Through the open door which led into the operating room they could see several guards which lay in pools of their own blood, several of them had scalpels sticking out of their backs.

* * *

Minutes before Major Rutherford and his team had come to save them Doctor Beckett and Doctor Keller had heard the first gunfire far of in the distance shortly after the first alarm had sounded. They had still been in surgery, trying to transplant organs from a dead guard to a dying one, and they had all their sharp knives and tools laid out as precise and perfect as they could to reach them when they needed.

Several days before the two had come to the conclusion that they would make their escape the next chance they got, if they died while they did then they would take as many guards with them as they could, it would be better than the hell they lived now.

When the guards first turned towards the door to talk to someone outside Beckett already had a scalpel in his left hand and he pressed it into the throat of the closest guard who gurgled when the blade cut through the artery and blood streamed down his throat. The scalpel was designed to cut rather than stab so it broke under the force, but the cracked blade was still sharp enough to sink into the back of the guard when he buried it there a split second later.

Keller's reaction was slightly delayed and one of the guards managed to turn towards her with his pistol raised towards her chest. She had been putting clasps on blood vessels during the surgery and the clasp she had in her hand was not really the ultimate weapon she would like to have in her hand so she dropped it while she reached out with her other hand to wrestle the gun from the guard.

The guard managed to fire of a round and she could see the guard Beckett was wrestling with fall down onto the hard tile floor. Somehow one of her hands closed around a surgical saw meant for cutting bone with a slight curve and a sharp tip, with the wooden handle firmly in her hand she chopped and stabbed with the blade until the guard fell face first into the trolley where her tools had lay. The trolley rolled over the floor and tipped when the wheels struck the body of the first guard Beckett had killed. After the guard's head had cracked against the tile floor Keller hurried down to take the gun.

Beckett had been grabbed from behind by one of the guards and he could feel the strong arm which was squeezing around his throat when the gun Keller was wrestling out of the other guards grip fired and the guard that was strangling him begun to feel like a big sack of dirt. The added weight pressed him down on the floor with the guard lying on top of him.

The last guard was the youngest and she had stayed outside the fight, but now she raised her gun and aimed it at Keller who was struggling to pull the gun from the dead guard. Right next to her Beckett was pulling himself towards the trolley which had fallen over right next to him. He reached out with his left arm and tried to grip a mallet which was within his reach, but his hand refused to close around the handle and he could see blood flowing out of his lower arm quite fast. In panic he flailed around with his other hand and felt it gripping something. Whatever it was it was out of his sight so he could not check what it was before he swung it towards the guard's legs.

The thing he had managed to grab was a meat cleaver that the guards had brought when he had asked for a better blade, still it was sharp and sank deep into the backside of the guards knee. The second slash cut the Achilles tendon on the other leg.

After prying loose the gun from the dead guard Keller stood up and looked for anything to shoot but it was only her and Beckett, who was hacking at the young guard over and over, alive in the room.

"Carson, she's dead" Keller said and plucked the cleaver from his hand.

* * *

-Colonel we have located the targets,- Sheppard heard Rutherford's voice coming from the whole crew's com badges.

"Good work Major, we'll beam you up" he replied and waved his hand toward Major Gant who relayed the order down to the Asgard core where Lieutenant Edison and his team manned the controls.

While he waited the Colonel went back to the screen in front of him. He was controlling one of the railguns manually from one of the consoles towards the back of the bridge, picking of a few guards at a time and making them pay for what was happening on Earth. But he did not go back to that, instead he took control of a few more railguns and aimed the group towards the silos on the east side of the base which exploded when the railguns rounds ripped through them, then he begun to destroy the buildings of the base one by one. A few seconds after they radioed in three members of Rutherford's team appeared in the bright flash of the Asgard's transporter.

"Where's your targets Major?" Sheppard asked as he left the console and walked up to greet them. "And I thought I sent down four of you?"

"The infirmary Sir, Doctor Beckett was injured along with the Lieutenant, Doctor Keller's going to patch them up."

"Then good work again Major."

"We managed to rescue many other too Colonel, they're gathered in one of the barracks."

"We'll get them." Major Gant said when she saw the Colonel's expression.

"We have sixteen 305s incoming," Captain Cooper reported.

"Ready all Asgard weapons," Sheppard ordered and turned back to Rutherford. "Get down to engineering and help them pick out those you rescued, don't forget the jumper."

"Yes Sir." Kleinman and Rutherford said in unison.

* * *

Minutes after picking up Rutherford's team the Odyssey was spewing out plasma beams and railguns rounds at the approaching 305s while its engines were pushing it further and further up in the atmosphere. One of the 305s banked to avoid a plasma beam, but it still graced the shields and weakened them enough for the railguns to pierce the shield and damage the ship.

Several more ships were approaching the Odyssey and it would soon be overpowered due to sheer numbers but they were not there to fight the 305s so when they got the chance Sheppard ordered the ship away and the hyperdrive sent the ship hurling towards a nearby planet with a stargate.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Things do get a bit 18+ after Jack storms off, so if you are underaged I am telling you to skip the section between the next pair of lines. I know you will not do that, but now you have been warned and no one can complain.**

 **A/N 2: Things again sort of go 18+ after Jack and Daniel's corridor scene, but underaged readers should not take any more damage from that scene than the one warned about above.**

"Anything else on the agenda for the day?" Jack asked. He'd been sitting in the same chair in the conference room for most of the day, listening to people's requests and suggestions before moving on to a meeting with some of the higher ups in the city, a meeting he now tried to end. Daniel was the only one who raised his hand around the U-shaped table, which had been brought back now with Woolsey gone, and got a tired look from Jack in response. "What about you Teal'c? Any luck finding Bra'tac and restoring the Free Jaffa Nation?"

"Bra'tac was killed before you rescued me O'Neill, he tried to flee in an Al'kesh which was destroyed over Dakara. I was captured on the same day. I have no reason to contact the Jaffa."

"Come on Teal'c, you've been fighting for the Jaffa's freedom for almost two decades. Are you going to abandon them just like that? And who knows maybe Bra'tac managed to escape using the rings," Carter said.

"Indeed, the Jaffa have grown weak. They do not deserve freedom."

"Right, well uhm…" Jack begun but was saved when the gate tech on duty declared they had an incoming wormhole over the towers internal com system. Quickly he hurried out of the room to see what was going on.

"That's not what I expected you to bring back Sheppard." Jack said from the balcony above the city's gate room. Sheppard had just arrived back through the gate with the two doctors from the Milky Way and their clothes were just as bloody. Beckett's arm still dripped blood on the floor as the two were helped away by some guards.

"I couldn't very well bring back the ships through the gate Sir could I? But they needed to be brought back here for medical treatment, I left a few dozen people with lesser injuries on the planet we came from so we can do a proper screening before we let them come here" Sheppard reported from below.

"That's all good Colonel but your mission was to retrieve the Odyssey and find out why we lost contact with the outpost on Earth." Jack's tone was full of irritation but inside he felt relieved that they had rescued someone who might help to bring some clarity.

"I know the mission and both the Retribution and the Odyssey are on their way back here."

"Good work then Colonel, we're having a meeting in the conference room, get cleaned up and join us afterwards."

"Yes Sir" Sheppard replied and walked away into a side corridor while Jack headed back to the meeting.

* * *

While Sheppard had retold what had happened in the Milky Way everyone had listened with different emotions coming and going. At the end they all had a feeling of dread and horror and Jack's eyes were burning with rage.

"Carter! How's the fleet looking?" Jack growled.

"As I already said Sir we have managed to increase production to two Retribution vessels a month and as many retrofits of Traveler ships as they can bring. But it will take us a year to match the fleet occupying Earth and any future ships they create." Her tone was as calm and comforting as she could make it, but she had worked with him for a long time and she could see that his anger was spilling over even before he acted.

With one of the longest lines of curses and foul words anyone in the room had heard Jack stood and pulled the table up with him, flipping it over and sending the chair into the wall. With everyone watching Jack drow his right foot through the table, breaking the metal table top into two halves with his Lantean strength before storming out, still rambling curses.

"Right, we will continue this meeting at a later time," she said

"Do you wish me to speak with him Colonel Carter?" Teal'c asked

"No, I'll take care of him."

* * *

"How can we do this with everything working against us?" Jack asked as she approached. With the internal sensors she had found him in one of the empty towers. He was sitting on a fold-up chair on a balcony and looked out over one of the larger piers.

Behind Jack another fold-up chair was leaning against the grey metal of the tower and she placed it so she could lean on the railing while looking out over the city. "I don't know Jack, but we always do. As long as we all stay together I'm sure we can overcome both the new Ori ships and take back Earth."

"I'm not so sure anymore Sam. First we crushed the Goa'uld, then the replicators, twice. After that we held off the Lucian Alliance while we destroyed the Ori. Not to mention the shit we have had to deal with back on Earth and the people there. Somewhere along the line we got into a war with the wraith too and sent a small expedition across the universe to top it all off. Now the Ori and the Goa'uld are both back to enslave the galaxy while we are preparing for a new war with the wraith. And just to make things a little bit worse some morons have taken control over Earth." Had there been something around to kill Sam was sure Jack would have done it simply with his sharp tone.

"We will find a way to deal with it Jack, I'm sure we can. We just need to stay on track and we will figure it out. One step at a time, we start with Earth, block the Ori gate and go after the Goa'uld. One victory at a time we'll take back the Milky Way."

"Thank you Sam, but it's times like this I wish I had stayed touched by the barbarian virus." Her chair scraped lightly against the floor as she moved closer to him.

"You mean the histamine virus from P3X-797?"

"Yea, that one. How easy it would have been to live that way. To just do what your body tells you to instead of having to worry about laws and regulations."

"Well then it's a good thing the Alterra don't have laws against many of your more primal needs Sir." Her chair again scraped against the floor as she placed it right next to his. "From what I heard there's a good chance you're the highest ranking man in the american military who's alive Jack, even if it still exists there's no one who can say what you can and can't do back on Earth."

"Now that's a jolly thought, to get rid of all the paper pushers and do things the right way, our way, again." His mood was on the rise again. When he felt Sam's hand sliding onto his own and clasping it his heart skipped a beat, he could feel his whole body tingle as they sat there in silence. "Do you know how hard the last years have been? To sit in an office and see all the cute marines and secretaries walk by outside, to know that a good portion of them droop that pen on purpose or those papers, to known that you could have everything they show and everything they don't if you just asked them to, simply because you can make sure they get the next promotion. Yet there's nothing you can do because you would lose your career if it came out that you fancy one of your subordinates. That's the worst torture you can do to a man."

"You've become a paperpusher yourself Jack, when was the last time you even picked up a weapon to kill something?"

"I'm not a paperpusher Sam because the last time I picked up a weapon was when I was going to check on the dome farm and ended up destroying both the Daedalus and the Hammond, would a paperpusher do that? They would be worried about the costs of rebuilding the ships and the dome farm afterwards."

"A job which Daniel was given instead. But I'm sure I..."

"And I did kill the president, so maybe I'm not in the employment of the Air Force anymore?"

"Probably not Jack. But as I was saying I think I can torture you much better than those ladies. There's things we women know will drive you mad which you don't even know could be done."

Now he was sure they had both been infected with something, but it had been a long time since he was this happy and content with a situation. No matter what they had caught he was happy it had struck them. "My ex-wife was pretty crafty Sam, I'm not sure you can come up with something we didn't…" He fell silent when she switched her grip of his hand so that her hand was on top of his with their finger twisted together. With a trembling hand she guided his to her leg and he only now realised that she was in her dress uniform, he could feel her body twitching under his hand as she guided his hand beneath the thick fabric of her black skirt along the inside of her thigh.

Her pulse climbed as she felt his cold hand climbing higher and higher up her thigh. He had closed his eyes and leant his head back while his hand rose. Slowly her grip around his hand hardened and a second before their joined hands reached the end of her thigh she changed direction and pulled them back out again. "Now how's that for torture Jack." She stood up without letting go of his hand and he quickly followed.

Without a thought he locked his arms around her and let his hands slide across her stomach and over her hips. As he stood there and savored her smell and how her body felt her hand let go of his and instead she took a firm grip of his arm. Against his skin she put something slightly moist and hot, a great contrast against the cold air which was licking his bare arms, then she broke free. "Don't go now Sam."

She disappeared through the door back into the tower and he hurried after. "Why don't you come and return them tonight and we can talk more about this Jack, if you take care of everything that needs to be done. Daniel wanted to speak about the dome farms and Larrin wanted to borrow Sheppard a bit."

While she disappeared down the corridor he looked as her hips swung from side to side. When she was gone he looked down to see what warm and damp thing she had tied his arms together with.

* * *

"Jack" Daniel shouted as the two men approached each other in a corridor. "I need to talk to you."

"I know."

"You do?"

"Yea, Sam told me. So what is it?"

"You know the dome farm which was destroyed? Well I think we should build a new one."

"Go then, do it. As long as you do it properly, get some people who know how to grow stuff and don't pull resources from any of the more important projects you're free to do as you want."

"Really? No limitations at all?" Daniel sounded surprised, he had expected some protests or some limitations.

"You know what, there's one thing I want you to do. Teal'c needs something to do, I think he's getting tired of beating up the marines and airmen down in the training halls. Let him help you and I'll transfer some of the new Asurans to your control."

"I thought he's heading the expedition to the other galaxies?"

"He is, or was. Things are going to hell so hard back home we can't send any ships on an expedition. Until a better time it's delayed."

"Then I'll get right to it." Daniel turned to walk away but Jack put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"One more thing, find Sheppard and tell him that Larrin wanted to work with him on something and if he thinks it's a good idea she's got then he can go with it. Just make sure you both send me lists of what you need and I'll have it shipped out to you."

"Will do Jack" he said and walked away when Jack let go, then he stopped a few meters away. "What happened on Earth is hard to understand for all of us, everyone is angry about it. Even the people from Pegasus want blood in retribution. But we trust in you and Mokar, we trust you to lead us against them when we are ready. I'm just happy Sam managed to calm you down so you don't throw everything away."

"Sam did more than just calm me down, she made me realise that it's time we truly showed we're serious about rebuilding the Alterran Empire and if we're going to do that we need to let go of whatever rules are holding us back. We need to trust each other to do our job, I can't be looking over everyone's shoulder to make sure they do it right. If you know someone who has some literature about uniting people I won't mind if you send them to me."

"We're a bit short on any sort of literature here in Pegasus Jack, but maybe someone brought something with them. I'll see what I can find." With those words Daniel left Jack in the corridor.

* * *

The door control chimed when Jack swiped his hand over the sensor. It was dark outside and the only light in the corridor came from the lights mounted on the walls. Inside the room he could hear someone moving around for almost a minute before the lights in the corridor dimmed. He heard how the door opened and he felt his way forward into the room. Outside rays of light from one of the planets moons broke through the clouds and his Lantean eyes could see the outline of her bed, it was a double bed with posts in the corners and three pillows, not the normal generic bed the rest of the rooms had. Then the door closed behind him and everything went dark.

He was less then three steps inside the door but somehow Sam managed to come up behind him. Her hands swept across his blue Air Force uniform and from one of his pockets she fished out the underwear she had tied his arms together with. "I hope you liked them" she whispered into his ear. The air which moved into his ear gave him goosebumps and he shivered.

It was still completely dark but her hands moved unhindered and begun to loosen his jacket. "I would much rather feel were they came from." He stood there and allowed her to remove the jacket, then she pulled his shirt out of his pants.

"Now you're moving too fast Jack, stay with the plan and everything will be fine." Her soft hands moved in under his shirt.

"I have waited more than a decade to feel your touch Sam, I am not moving too fast and I do not have any other plan than to put you onto that bed and let my instincts take over."

"Well I have a plan Jack. I have perfected it over the years and I am not going to let you ruin it by being too horny. Now shut up and do as I say." Her hands were cold and his body tried to avoid them but she pressed him against her own body and caressed his chest until they became warm and comfortable. Slowly she unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off, leaving it lying on the floor. When she pressed herself against him again he could feel her bare skin against his back, her bare breasts rubbed against his back. She slid a hand into his and begun to lead him forward towards the bed. At the bed she told him to drop the pants and get into the bed. He could hear her walking around the bed and it shifted when she sat down. When he slid down under the covers she was there and waited for him. She pulled him into a deep kiss and his hands moved across her skin.

Without warning the door opened and the lights turned on. Sam panicked and rolled three times until the covers formed a cocoon around her body, leaving Jack as naked as the day he was born. His newfound nudity sent him into a panicked rush to get his clothes back on, but ended with him covering his groin with a pillow while trying to get his boxers on.

"How good that you have begun to procreate" Mokar said from the doorpost when he had finished laughing. He was wearing his usual white Alterran clothes, but with plenty of added brown and green spots where dirt and plants had rubbed against them.

"You never heard about knocking?" Sam scolded

Mokar let out another laugh while Jack dropped the pillow and got the rest of his clothes. "I didn't know you had returned to the city." He quickly proceeded to get dressed.

"I have heard of knocking but the concept is new to the Alterra. We never had any need for privacy, we were a very open race and we had little to hide physically. But if I did anything to bother you I apologise." Then he turned to Jack. "I returned just a few minutes ago and I need to talk to you urgently. Carter is free to listen in if she should want to."


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: Sorry about the slight delay.**

"Well the good news is that the Ori ships have been destroyed and we don't have to worry about them," Mokar said.

"But I had really hoped that we kicked them to the curb permanently." Jack was still getting dressed in his dark blue Air Force uniform and Sam was cocooned in the bed's cover.

"It would seem that you did not, but this time we will do it properly. We are truly only at war with the Ori themselves…"

Jack cut in before he had time to finish. "Fuck that. The Ori might be leading but it's their followers who do the killing and it's them we must stop. You said it yourself, the Ori gain power directly from their followers just like your ascended brothers and sisters. The more of their followers we kill the weaker they become." His burning rage was beginning to surface and he ignored Sam's attempts to calm him down, but still Mokar kept his neutral front up. Inside him his rage was burning just like Jack's, but he had been a trained Jaffa and knew better than to let it show or influence him.

"Yes it is as you say O'Neill and that is the reason why we will make sure that not a single Ori follower live when the war is over. But I will not allow you or anyone else to massacre them. Our technology means that we can take the first hit without fearing it and then we can deal a decisive blow to them without to much trouble, only if they attack anyone first will we return fire." To keep his calm he used his powers and slowly but surely peeled away the stains on his white clothes.

"So we will exterminate them, but we're not allowed to engage them? I'll have Beckett lock you as an insane person if you keep saying inconsistent things like that." He had gotten dressed and was rushing across the room towards Mokar.

"I would very much like to see you try." Suddenly Jack felt his chest compressing as if an invisible hand was holding him then his feet left the floor and he floated backwards. "Calm down O'Neill. We will give them a choice of abandoning Origin, those who accept will no longer be a threat to us. Those who do not will be treated as if they attacked one of our ships. I can hold you there for a few hours before I need to rest, so just take a few deep breaths and be reasonable."

"Then what? We dump those who surrender on a planet without a stargate and forget about them? That will only make things worse, they will keep breeding and worshiping Origin." Ever so gentle Mokar put Jack in a sitting position on the bed while still restraining him. An angry look and a word from Sam made him mental remove the black leather boots before they touched the bed. With a thought he placed them gently on the side of the bed.

"No, they will be given a world with a gate here in Pegasus but I will lock it so it can only dial Atlantis. We will help them build a society there and they will be given a place in the empire. Future generations will be allowed to join the empire's fleets and armies. No matter how few they are they will grow in numbers and become an asset."

"That would mean everyone else will be killed, then we are no better than the Ori." For the first time Sam interrupted the dialogue and for the first time Mokar showed emotions that evening as he showed how sad the thought made him.

"Yes you are correct Carter and it is not an easy decision to make. But I know how much suffering the Ori can cause if we let them have any power left, I can not allow that to ever happen again. Still I promise that those who stay behind in Freya will not suffer when they die, they will not feel anything. We have the technology to do that and we will use it." Finally Jack seemed to have calmed down and Mokar released his mental grip. "You will not have to worry about that though O'Neill, I will personally deal with both of the surviving groups. I only need you to fight the war and drive them back. I did not come here to start a fight with you Jack and I will not allow you to do so either. When you two have finished here I would like you to come find me, if you are to procreate there are some things we need to do before." With those words Mokar turned around and left. When the door closed the lights in the room dimmed until it was just as dark as it had been before.

"Come on Jack drop the clothes and relax." He had stood up and was about to walk away when she grabbed his hand.

"You really think this is a good time for us to be fooling around in bed Sam? We should be out there saving the galaxies and if he gets what he wants you'll be in the same seat Teyla was in when she got a kid on her hands. What would you do if that happened?"

"Who do you mean Jack? Mokar or this guy." Her hand slid around his waist and towards his groin. "Of course it would mean I would have to stay here in Atlantis a lot more instead of being out there shooting wraith or Goa'uld. But if it was our child I would be happy to raise it with you and I don't think we have to keep an eye on it all the time. In desperate times people seek shelter in each others arms, just like we were about to do, and from that there will inevitably come some kids. One of the Lantean medical doctors are already in the twelfth month, so it won't be alone if we make one."

"Fine." He tried to sound as grumpy as he could. He pulled of his uniform and threw it into a corner before grabbing one end of the covers, janking it hard. While Sam tried to get her bearings after rolling several times she felt the covers rubbing against her skin as Jack climbed into the bed behind her. "So what plans had you made?" His right arm had slithered beneath her head and he used it to press her against him. The fingers on his left hand danced down her exposed arm towards her hips.

"Maybe we can use those plans some other time Jack, right now I just want you to show me your love."

* * *

"Really? Of all places you could have brought us to through the gate you chose this dung pile?" After meeting Mokar in the gate room after their fun Jack and Sam had followed him through the active gate. The swamps of Gamia really smelled like a pile of dung left out in the sun. With whatever they could the two covered their mouths and noses to keep the smell out of their bodies while they waded after Mokar who moved through the water without a care for the stench. Already as they came through the gate they had been in ankle deep and very muddy water but with each step they walked the water rose up their legs, past their knees to end up somewhere arounds their hips; slightly higher on Sam due to her shorter size. "Welcome to Gamia Sam. This is the planet they invented the term 'backwater planet' for."

"There are planets with much more water on them than this one O'Neill." Much like Teal'c in his first years on Earth many expressions went over Mokar's head while he at other times could have a surprisingly good insight into others. "As I have already said before this planet was meant for great things before our demise."

"So it was here somewhere that you became a Lantean Jack?"

"Yea it should be right up ahead." Jack had barely finished before Mokar activated the hidden switch and the three were transported to the underground chambers.

"Come." The Alterran had already walked down the corridor and waved for the others to follow. Were they had entered there was a control crystal embedded into the wall, on the other end of the corridor the wall had a complicated pattern of leaves and branches. The times before that he had been here his directives had made sure he ignored it as if it did not exist but now when he had two candidates with him he could see and manipulate the pattern until four of the largest leaves moved to reveal a compartment of small crystalline stones. " _When there was no one, one sprung from the darkness to take up the mantle. Now two more shall take their places by the lone one's side to share the mantle of the Alterra."_ With light thoughts he used his power to guide two of the stones out of the compartment and towards Jack and Sam. While he turned towards them the stones stopped in front of them, right above their hearts. " _Know that the burden of the Alterra is heavy, while others while die with time the release the Alterra can hope for is found in battle. You were not of the Alterra at birth but you may die as such. Know that all you know of your former race will have disappeared or changed when that time comes. The mantle of galaxial leadership is heavy and will be a burden, yet the strong must carry it on their backs to make sure the weak can live in peace. Now you must chose, will you accept the mantle?"_

"Yes I do. Can we get it over with?"

A sharp elbow in his side made Jack squeal. "Don't be rude Jack."

"O'Neill, you will need to say it in Alterran, the technology only responds to it and it needs your approval."

" _I accept."_ The words sprung from her lips and only a few moments after Jack followed her example.

In unison they reached out and grabbed the two stones which floated in front of them. While they pressed the stones in their hands jolts of pain dashed through their bodies from the hand the held the stones in; it ran through their wrists, up their arms and into their chest where it spread into their bodies. When the pain reached their legs Mokar caught them and let them ease down on the floor. As their bodies were filled with pain their field of vision begun to shrink until everything went black.

When the two soon to be Alterra lay unconscious at his feet he summoned up his mental powers and lifted the two into the air. With them floating behind him he walked down the corridor, at the last two rooms he stopped and let them float into the rooms to rest. Carefully he laid them down on the beds in the rooms and released his grip. The process took a lot of energy from the victims and they would need time to recover, here they would have all the time they needed.

* * *

The main jumper hangar of Atlantis was full of movement when Mokar walked into the room. To his right massive glass panels were raised up through the floor from the gate room; hanging under a jumper. On his other side steel beams were attached to the underside of jumpers which flew out of the tower. At the center of it all Daniel was standing, his arms were waving ferociously as he directed the work. When he saw Mokar approaching he shouted something and two other men took over while he walked to meet him. "What can I help you with?"

"Nothing actually, I am simply walking around to see how Atlantis and everyone is doing." Daniel's side project was using a lot of resources and personnel but since most of them did not have anything better to do he did not mind.

"Well you haven't happened to see Jack and Sam? They don't respond on their com badges and no one has seen them for a few days."

"They are currently off-world, doing some things for me." It had taken longer than expected for Sam to recover and awaken, Jack had awoken when he had been there to check on them five days ago, but he had refused to leave without Sam. The facility would make sure they had everything they needed, after all it was made to help the Alterra rise again.

"So any ideas when they'll be back?"

"As soon as Sam is done with her part, it might take her one more week but I hope she will return sooner."

"Think you could take Jack's place and come check on the progress, I think we should build two more domes while we already have a system going for how to assemble them."

"Well we might as well do it, there will always be a need for food when our population expands." The last jumper rose up from the gate room with a payload of glass panels and the floor closed while the gate shut down. "And I would be happy to see your progress with…" He did not have time to finish before an alarm sounded from below and he darted for the closing floor. In disbelief Daniel watched Mokar drop through the floor just before it closed. It took him a second, then he hurried to the stairs.


	17. Chapter 17

"What's happening?" Daniel had just gotten down from the jumper hangar above and the control room was in chaos.

At the centre of it all Mokar was standing calm and collected. "Three ships are approaching the planet and they are flying dangerously close to a small Wraith fleet. If they are the ships I think they are then a hive, two cruisers and a complement of darts is easy prey for them. But their hyperdrives seem to be damaged, Atlantis sensors managed to pick up their hyperdrive signatures long before they should have been found and they are traveling slower than any of the ships should. They are also not transmitting any identification signals to us. If the wraith detects them they can follow them here and I do not think I have to tell you that we are not ready for a full scale war with the wraith. Even if the wraith do not follow them here more wraith will come to see where the ships came from."

"Hyperdrive signatures detected around the wraith fleet." The report came from a technician. "Wraith ships have entered hyperspace and are leaving the immediate area." A collective sigh of joy rang out in the control room.

"Track them, predict heading and stops."

People returned to their normal positions and resumed their work now that the danger was over. "They're heading straight for wraith territory. They will likely have to stop at least twenty times before they have returned there."

"Find the closest rally point with a Retributor and order it to intercept and destroy the fleet. Only Retributors, not a single Generation ship. I do not want the wraith to connect the two."

"The fleet will pass close to two of our forward defensive bases, each has a Retributor." The rally points were eight points above the galactic plane where their ships were stationed and waiting for orders, they were simply coordinates and could be moved at will. The defensive bases were surviving Alterran installations they used, like the drone factory which was filling up Atlantis hold.

"Good, send them both to be sure that nothing goes wrong." Again the control room was in full action as the order was relayed and confirmed.

"Defensive base six wants to know approach pattern."

"Diffuse approach and cloaked attack."

"Yes Sir."

"Send some ships to escort the approaching ships too, they might need help before they can arrive here."

* * *

With a small escort of ships around them the pilot eased the Retaliation, Larrin's Retribution class ship, down through the atmosphere. It was only the Retaliation, the Odyssey and the Retribution which were going down to Atlantis, the other ships banked away, they would return to their stations and rally points.

She heard her crew getting them their permission to dock with Atlantis at one of the piers which quickly approached. A large group of technicians stood ready on the pier when the ship drifted into place and systems hidden in the side of the pier activated. Cranes came out of the side of the pier and hugged the ship when it stopped. The ship was well over four hundred meters long and a hundred meters wide at her widest , it would not have fitted on top of the pier and while the docking system was made for ships like the Aurora, one thousand five hundred meters long and two hundred wide, it gladly accepted the Retributors.

While the ship docked Larrin walked down to the lower level of the ship and waited for the hull plates to move aside so she could exit her ship.

* * *

When the BC-304 came down onto the pier the city shook slightly. It was in horrible shape, smoke was rolling out of cracks in the armour and from its belly dripped an assortment of liquids. After touching down the ship was still for several minutes before the gangplank began to lower beneath the ship. Through the gap between the hull and the gangplank Mokar could see three pair of feet which walked further and further out on the plank. Quite some distance above the pier the gangplank stopped moving and hydraulic fluid begun to run down the outside of the pistons which held it up. As he watched the ramp suddenly dropped down and one of the pistons followed it. Almost immediately personel was there to help Cooper, Kleinman and Gant away from the ship.

After checking that everyone was fine Mokar walked up the ramp and into the ship. He could feel something tugging to get his attention and he let it guide him. He had to turn around and take other routes a few times due to damaged sections but he finally walked into the Asgard core room.

Daniel came into the room a few seconds later and he could see Mokar standing in front of the dullest of the walls in the room. The Agard insisted that nothing was done to the wall because they had embedded some technology into the wall and any changes to it could damage it, hence the wall was a boring dark gray slab of metal. For a moment Daniel thought the man had gone crazy when he stood there and looked like the wall was a very interesting piece of architecture. He looked at him for more than a minute and saw him touch the wall from time to time. Daniel had been in the room several times, even if he prefered the Asgard knowledge room which he found easier to work with, but it felt different this time. The room felt almost alive when he touched the walls. Blue sparks danced around his fingers when he pulled them over the wall.

"Daniel. Do not touch anything and do not move."

"What? Why?"

"I know you can use some of the Lantean powers. Focus on your eyes and try to see what I see. There is more to this place than you can see." To the Alterra such perceptive powers came naturally and without any effort, but Lanteans had to focus to hold onto it. As a Lantean grew closer to Alterran standards such easy things could go automatically for them too, but only Sheppard and O'Neill, before his transformation into Alterra, were biologically advanced enough for those powers to come easily.

"I've always sat down when I did that, I don't think I can do that standing up." For some Lanteans it was easier to focus the powers into the right senses when they sat down and no one was helped by being told to stand still.

"There is a shaped force field covering much of your body Daniel, if you try to sit down I do not know what will happen."

He could feel Daniel collecting his inner energies as he tried to see what the Asgard had hidden from them.

* * *

Close to what could be seen as the border into wraith controlled space the two Retributors sat silently. The arrowhead shaped hulls where dark and would have blended perfectly with the surrounding void, even when their powerful cloaks were not activated. Now both ships had their cloaks running on full power to make sure the approaching wraith ships did not detect them. Along the arrowhead shaped hulls of the retributors the four pulse weapons which acted as the ship's main weapons had risen from beneath the shifting armour plates which made up its outer hull. Around fifty weaker turrets designed specifically to deal with darts lay beneath the plates and waited for when they would be called upon.

Some time after their arrival the hive and its two escorting cruisers returned from hyperspace. Both Retributors had lay side by side in the vast expanse and the wraith fleet had arrived straight in front of them. Almost as soon as the wraith fleet had arrived the Retributors broke up and begun a pincer movement. Once in position the ships dropped their cloaks. Each of the eight pulse weapons rang out in succession and the two cruisers were impacted by four blasts each. One of the cruisers begun to tilt and in seconds it had begun to spiral away from the other two wraith ships with only one engine working. The other cruiser was luckier and begun to turn to face the the Retributor which had attacked it.

Another salvo left the spiraling cruiser floating without power or control. By now the hive had assessed the situation and opened the large hangar doors. Almost a thousand darts deployed and rushed towards the two attacking vessels, who to the wraith seemed to lack anti-fighter weapons. Meanwhile both the hive and the remaining cruiser had their hyperdrives destroyed by the joined firepower of the two Retributors. Once the darts had been fully committed to the battle and where almost a minute from the hive the armour plates on the hull moved around and just over half of the ship's anti-fighter weapons rose up into firing positions. In seconds they reduced the number of darts to half and after two minutes less than a hundred darts remained.

Without hyperdrive the hive launched the remaining darts, some three thousand. At the edge of the battle the formerly spinning cruiser was limping back in between one of the Retributors and the hive with its darts on a collision course. For the first time the battle was equal and the darts which still streamed out of the hive was turning it against the Retributors. With quickly shrinking shield strength the two Retributors returned their weapons inside the armour and activated their hyperdrives. When they returned from hyperspace again they had only been gone a split second but it was enough to get the ships to the other side of the battlefield. Because the Retributors had their weapons mounted in moveable turrets they released salvo after salvo from their main weapons while they turned around to face the hive again. With the Retributors now behind it the hive tried to turn around, but the plasma bolts from the Retributors cut through the armour and secondary explosions begun to tear the hive apart piece by piece. With the hive destroyed the two cruisers split up and tried to escape while their hyperdrives slowly grew back. The darts meanwhile all headed for one of the Retributors determined to take at least one of their attackers with them into death. With only seconds to go before the darts would reach the Retributor less than fifty remained of the swarm and more darts were destroyed until only six reached the shields of the Retributor. The weakened shield of the Retributor failed half a minute later when they engaged the two cruisers, but below the shield the thick armour plates waited and held their ground against the plasma bolts from the cruisers. Salvo after salvo were exchanged between the two sides, until finally one of the cruisers exploded and damaged the second cruiser which was destroyed seconds later.

 **A/N: First proper battle scene in the series I think, not counting the one above Earth because it was pretty pathetic. Now please give me your thoughts about it. What's good? What's bad? Etc.**


	18. Chapter 18

Both Mokar and Daniel had been standing in the same spot for almost three hours when Daniel's sight blurred for a moment, then he could see what the Asgard had hidden. The entire wall was covered in holographic screens and there was indeed a shaped forcefield there too, but it was around Mokar, not Daniel. It took Daniel a few minutes to translate the Asgard writing on the screens and find the command to shut down the forcefield.

When the forcefield fell Mokar's posture changed, his shoulders fell, he shifted his legs around to soften up the muscles and got a smile on his face. "Good work Daniel." From the doorways Sheppard and Teal'c rushed inside with medics and soldiers in tow. When the forcefield had formed additional forcefields had sealed the room.

"Are you alright?" Sheppard asked Mokar.

"I'm fine Sheppard, do not worry about me. See if Zelenka can spare some engineers to patch up the worst damage on the ship. And I want a rapport from all the involved captains and you in four hours time."

"Yes Sir" Sheppard said. He saluted and turned around.

"Teal'c, send a message to Jack. Tell him that the ships have returned and that I and Daniel have begun to decipher the Asgard blueprints. We will have long range transporters and Asgard plasma beams soon. Also see if the Retributors have made contact with the wraith fleet and tell him of the outcome."

Teal'c noded slowly. "I will see to it."

Now again alone the two returned their focus to the wall. "What is this?" Daniel asked.

"I do not know Daniel, but I do not think it was meant for humans to find considering the method they used to hide it with." Something caught his attention and he hurried over it it with Daniel closely behind.

Daniel looked over Mokar's shoulder and tried to place one of the symbols. "That's Thor's sigil. He used it to sign rapports and other documents that I've read in the database."

"No, that is the symbol of an Asgard military position, much like a general, the symbol would have been handed on from one Asgard to the next. But it does seem like it was used by an Asgard by the name of Thor to sign this program. I will try to run it." Mokar tapped the wall three times.

In the middle of the room the grey shape of an Asgard appeared. The Asgard looked at Mokar for a second then it bowed as far as an Asgard could without falling over. When it looked up again its eyes fixed themselves on Daniel. Its eyes widened so much that Daniel could see their perfect roundness. "Your presence here was not accounted for Daniel. We predicted that it would be O'Neill or the ones called Sheppard and Mitchell that would find us. Yet the ship's sensors show that you have evolved much since I entered your biological profile into the database, clearly both of you have been infected by the Ancient's repositories. You are both lucky to have survived as long as you have. We will immediately attempt to extract the knowledge and revert your biological profile to the one we have stored Daniel. Your friend on the other hand will be harder. I do not have his biological profile to revert to. A general profile will be used to restore him."

"It is fine Asgard. We are both as healthy as we can be" Mokar said.

"That is not possible. It was calculated that it would take more than five hundred years before the Tau'ri reached a level at which they could use the repositories. Counting from the destruction of our species, that time has not yet past."

"Please Thor, just listen before you do something bad," Daniel pleaded. " I don't know why. He was a Jaffa before, maybe that's why. But the repository worked. He's a true Alterran. If you do something to him you will take away the best chance humanity has of peace in two galaxies."

"The parameters you have given are not accounted for in the programing. Program is shutting down." Slowly the hologram faded away.

"Well that was odd. I never th..." Daniel said. He was cut of by the chime of the Asgard transporter which left another Asgard within the hologram. In its small grey hand it held one of the typical Asgard stones. "This is probably a solid hologram, the Asgard core begun to use the transporter to fake the arrival of a real Asgard after some people freaked out when a solid hologram appeared out of nowhere."

"This is no hologram Daniel. This one lives, it breathes and its blood is pumped around." Mokar knelt down to face the Asgard at its own height. "It is an honour to meet you Asgard. I was told that your entire people died on your newest home planet."

"I am Thor and yes, such was the fate of our people. The High Council decided. I did not agree. The High Council believed that our options have been all tried."

"Well the last thing you tried left you all dying very quickly and you couldn't transfer into another body to save yourself."

"That is somewhat correct Daniel. We could still download our minds into our ships, just not into a new body. Our minds had been locked to a specific body. We could not reverse it. Before we discovered our mistake all but a few had transferred into the new bodies. I am trapped in such a body Daniel, should this body die I would be forced to stay in a computer."

"Then why didn't you simply leave and search for a cure on your own?" Mokar asked.

"What use, would a cure have been, when only I lived?"

"You mean that the others are also in the transporter, waiting to be released?" Daniel said.

"Some are. I could not transport all Asgards in the time between the detonation and the explosion. When Asgards die our minds are downloaded into computers on our ships or our planets. All equipment used for such things were destroyed."

"But you built one into the ship? So you could download all Asgards into the ship," Daniel asked.

"I could not, I was watched because of my close ties to you. The task was given to Loki and Hermiod. All Asgard reside within the core until we can unlock our minds again."

"Then why not come out earlier? Why wait for us to find you?"

"It seems you two have a lot to talk about. I will need to talk to the Captains of the ships to find out why they brought back a wreck," Mokar said. Then he left the room.

"We, have always believed that humans are the key. Loki was close but his data was destroyed after he was captured. Through the sensors we have studied every part of human biology and reproduction to find a solution. We still need much more data. If we can connect to the city's sensors things will go faster. We think that a successful new body can be created in under two years. With data from the city we can have it ready sooner."

"Who else is there other than you Thor?"

"Loki, Hermiod and Heimdall are helping. Loki and Heimdall have worked on the cloning project longer than even myself and they will, find a way. Meanwhile Hermiod and myself have been trying to find a way to go around the lock in our minds."

"Will you have solved it before the bodies are ready?"

"I do not think so Daniel. Creating new bodies is easy, making a mind accept a new body is hard. Our minds have been forced to change to new bodies often. This last attempt should have been easy. For some reason our minds have stopped adapting. We need to find out why."

"I'm sure you will find a way Thor."

"I do not think it is necessary for us to find a way. I believe that the Alterra have already done so. That you have found an Alterran could be our salvation Daniel. In the repository a project is mentioned that can help us."

"What sort of project?"

"We have not extracted enough to know why but the Alterra tried to transplant the mind of a hostile race,into the body of a friendly race. To do that they needed to change the mind of the hostile subject. What they learned can be useful to us."

"I will talk to him and see what he knows."

"Thank you Daniel, I will inform the others."

"You are welcome Thor, I'm happy that you're back. There have been times when we could really have used your help."

"And still it is now you who again come to help us Daniel, I believe that humans may have surpassed us in ways we could never think of."

"Most of us can't count ourselves among humans any more Thor, we are Lanteans now, genetically enhanced by Mokar to increase our performance."

"I concluded as much from the information you gave the hologram Daniel and I still think you have surpassed us."

"I think we still have much to learn from you Thor."

* * *

"We received confirmation from the Retributors that they have taken out the hive and its escort so for now I think we will be staying under their radar. Now I would like to know why you brought back the Odyssey in such a bad shape." Mokar and the others were sitting around the conference table.

"We received an emergency request from a Traveler fleet and to keep our growing fleet a secret I took only the Odyssey to assist. We managed to rescue two of two eight ships, but as you can tell we suffered some damage in the process," Sheppard replied.

"For now all our scavenger fleets have been pulled back until we can find out why the wraith attacked and how they managed to find the fleet," Larrin said. "Normally our fleets run away the moment we detect the wraith, but this time some ships could not even activate their hyperdrives and the others failed to raise shields because the power couplings had been disconnected."

"If the wraith have begun to seek out and attack your fleets then something must have changed. With Earth backing us with personnel we can take the fight to the wraith, but until then I do not want to provoke them."

"Our fleet will be ready to take back Earth, again, in a matter of weeks," Jack said.

"Welcome back General," Mokar said when he saw the man coming into the room. "I take it both you and Sam are finished with your assignment?"

"No, I came back when Teal'c contacted me, he's taken my place. I'm of more use here."

"Good to see you Sir," John said.

"I will have an invasion fleet ready as soon as I can, this time they will not be able to push us away. We are going to stand our ground, no matter what."

"There's no need to be dramatic General." Mokar turned in his chair to look at the two Traveler captains. "I will send a number of ships to guard your home to be one the safe side."

"Thank you, but I don't think their presence will be accepted by the other captains," Larrin said.

"We will make sure that they are not noticed Larrin. We will do our best to keep your home safe."

A/N: Sorry about the horrible Asgards speech patterns. I'll see about sorting it out down the line. And sorry about being a few hours late.


	19. Chapter 19

"Jack, Vanguard fleet is ready to advance," Sam said. She was sitting in the control chair of the freshly constructed lead Aurora. On one of the viewports Jack could be seen.

-I read you Sam. You have a go, see you above Earth. Are you still going for the primary landing zone?- Jack replied.

"Thank you Jack. We are still going to the primary landing zone in Scandinavia and unless the Goa'uld have fortified the whole region I don't see any reason for us to change from the primary to any of the secondary landing zones in New Zealand or South America."

On the screen Jack looked away for a few seconds and nodded to someone before turning back to her. -Well then, Teal'c and the blockade fleet have just gotten into position. You just do whatever you can to make sure they call back their ships to Earth and he will keep them there.-

"We'll make sure they can't ignore us Jack."

Again Jack looked away and the light flashing over his face changed. -Good girl. Now it seems I have a small engagement on my hands here over the new Icarus base, O'Neill out.- Quickly his face faded away from the viewport and the dark void of space took over.

A thought from Sam was all it took for the entire fleet to receive their orders and jump the last distance to Earth.

* * *

"We are out numbering the hostile ships Sir and outpowering them even more," one of the men on the bridge of the Aurora Jack controlled said. "This battle is our."

"Never count on a battle going the way you think it will." Jack's voice was calm but harsh as he replied. "Can I hope the landing team is ready?"

"They have already landed and will soon be ready to strike."

Outside the battle raged as the Alterran ships formed groups to focus on single ships, taking them out in seconds before moving on. The fleet of S.E.N 305s unleashed wave after wave of missiles towards the Alterran fleet together with a bombardment of railgun rounds. In turn the Retributors let the energy flow freely to their plasma cannons and the two Auroras which accompanied them launched a small swarm of drones. Each second which passed saw more and more 305s destroyed. A minute passed before the first 305 activated its hyperdrive to flee the battle and certain destruction.

Five minutes after they had begun the engagement speakers in Jack's control chair came to life. -General do you read?-

"O'Neill here, I read you just fine."

-Icarus base is under our control General, we are ready to turn of the beaming jammers.-

"Go ahead, I'll be right down with you."

-Yes Sir.-

When the speakers shut down again the chair rose back up into a sitting position so Jack could get up. When he did the ship's Captain hurried to take Jack's place in the chair. He rounded the control chair and walked up to the five heavily armed men that waited for him. They begun to hand him his gear and before long he had two pistols, one Tau'ri and one Alterran, tucked safely into their holsters on the combat vest and an Alterran SMG hanging across his front. When he was finished two seconds passed before he heard the familiar chime of an Asgard transporter and saw the accompanying white flash.

A saluting soldier was the first thing he saw when the white flash disappeared. They had been beamed directly into the base's gate room which was almost identical to SGC's gate room, the key differences was the slight yellow tint that the concrete had and the lack of a separate control room, instead everything was positioned along the walls of the room.

Over most workstations blood had been flung and plenty of limp bodies littered the room.

One of the soldiers in the room hurried up to Jack and his guards. "Sir, we captured the base commander."

"Good work."

"Bow before Earth's nobility, peasant." The order came from the finely dressed man standing in front of the gate whom almost everyone in the room had their weapon trained on.

"I believe my orders were clear though, no one lives."

"He's got a shield Sir. Our weapons have no effect."

"Then try something else." Before the soldiers had a chance to react Jack had drawn his Tau'ri pistol and fired a round. Just before the bullet hit the man it deflected away and buried itself deep into the concrete wall. With rage burning inside him Jack dropped the gun and drew his knife, running forward. In less than a second he had crossed the distance and tried to drive the knife into the man.

"I can not be killed, I am a nobleman from Earth," the man said while the blade simply deflected of the shield.

"Why don't we just leave him to die Sir?" one of the soldiers asked. "We're going to blow up the whole planet any way."

"I said that no one lives solider. That includes him." Jack had dropped the knife and began to punch the forcefield, with each hit he landed he got angrier and angrier. As his feelings grew Jack channeled them just like Mokar had thought him, slowly the transparent force field bended and the light distorted. Finally it shattered and Jack's fist sunk into the man's side."Not even nobles from Earth." His fist shrunk deeper and deeper into the man's chest before he pulled out his bloody hand and let go of the anger. As he let go of the anger the raw energies around his hand dissipated and the blood around his hand dripped down without leaving any trace on his clothes. He pulled the bottom of his shirt three times to straighten it out before walking to the DHD.

-General I'm happy to inform you that we have eliminated all SEN ships in orbit,- a voice came from his communicator.

"Thank you Captain." Slowly Jack slid his hand across the DHD and let it rest on the central bubble.

* * *

"Alright people, we just received word that General O'Neill will open a wormhole for us in a moment. We know that there are friendlies on the other side of the gate, be sharp and ready but if you as much as fire in the general direction of our own people I will make sure that your whole unit gets stationed on the coldest planets we place an outpost on," Sheppard said from the balcony above Atlantis gate room. A unified acknowledgment rang out from the soldiers below. Within seconds the gate activated and the men readied themselves. When Sheppard walked down the stairs the men parted before him. When he came to the gate he took a deep breath and exhaled before he stepped through.

His arrival through the gate was not violent like it had been described in Colonel Young's report, instead it just felt like any other gate travel but with some additional force. He had barely materialised when his shield was hit, time and time again. But his men were coming through behind him, ready to take on any resistance. The replica of the gate room they had constructed in Atlantis looked nothing like the one they had arrived in. The two stairs going up were now lying as a barricade between the gate and the doors leading away. The steps of the stairs were reinforced with thick plates, just like the railing of the balcony above. It was from between the steps and through arrow slits in the balcony's plating that they were attacked. They had already counted on being without cover when they came through the gate so the two soldiers who came directly after Sheppard carried with them shield emitters which they attached to both sides of the stargate. It took the two emitters a second to fill their buffers, then they created a blue one-way forcefield around and above the gate. When the shield was full of soldiers their arrival halted.

The firefight raged on for a few minutes, with little happening other than the bullets and energy bolts which flew between the two sides. Then something changed, on the balcony above seven of the hostile soldiers stood up and begun to shoot down, not towards the gate but towards the soldiers behind the barricade. Seeing the chance Sheppard and the other Lantean soldiers rushed out of the shield and stormed the barricade, shooting anyone who moved. In seconds the gate room had been captured. On the balcony above the soldiers who had stood up carefully released their weapons and let them fall down on the metal grid. From somewhere a ladder was pushed over the railing and a lone man climbed over the railing and begun to climb the ladder down to the floor. By now additional reinforcements had begun to arrive through the gate. They spread out, everyone knowing their role, to secure every access point. The man climbing down had just let go of the ladder when two squads lined up to climb it up to the balcony.

The man who had climbed down pulled of an half-assed salute. "First Lieutenant Matthew Scott, US Air Force reporting for duty, Sir."

"At ease Lieutenant," Sheppard replied "What's the status aboard?"

"Hostile forces have captured the ship Sir. We have twenty armed soldiers spread around the ship which will help us if they can, I would appreciate it if you would not kill them Sir."

"We don't plan on doing any killing Lieutenant, we'll just stun them and let them be. We're here to bring you home along with any information you have gathered."

"Yes Sir. The enemy have just over a hundred men, including the men in this room. If we reach the bridge we can seal of and ventilate sections."

"Thank you Lieutenant, but you and your men will be leaving in a few minutes. That's an order."

"Yes Sir." Again Scott saluted, this time it was sharp and proper.

While they had talked the incoming wormhole had disengaged and now Destiny's own gate was dialing out. Scott's men had been rounded up, with two escorting Lantean soldiers in front and two behind them. "Don't be alarmed by what you find on the other side Lieutenant."

"Yes Sir." With those words he jogged up to the column and took point, leading his men through the active gate. By now they all knew not to be surprised by the unexpected.

"Alright people, proceed as planned," Sheppard roared "I want the bridge secured and the ship locked down. Remember to check for our personnel among the enemy."

His men had already moved out into the corridors beyond the gate room so Sheppard hurried to catch up to them. He caught up with a four man team a few junctions ahead and together they hurried down the corridor, cutting down anyone who stood in their way. Blast after blast shot out of his Alterran weapon as things turned into a blur. Every few junctions small barricades slowed them down marginally, but their shields held the primitive bullets at bay as they rushed each position.

Before he realized it they had reached the heavy door leading into the bridge. It was sealed tight but they had brought breaching charges, a single one placed in the middle of the door cleaved it in two. It twisted and bended enough for them to pass through one at a time. Just inside the door ten guards were trying to get back up on their feet after the blast but they quickly got stunned by the passing Lanteans. On the bridge five guards faced them with raised weapons, behind the guards two men lay in pools of blood with three more sitting behind the ship's controls. Before the guards even managed to fire their weapons Sheppard and his team had stunned them.

One of the men sitting behind the ship's controls was out of the chair with his hands raised almost before the guards hit the floor, all of the Lantean weapons tracked his movements. "We will cooperate as long as we are allowed to treat our injured men." Behind him the other two men also stood up.

"Name and rank?" Sheppard asked, seeing his military uniform. One of his men hurried forward to examine the two injured men.

"Colonel Everett Young of the US Air Force."

Sheppard's man who was kneeling with the injured turned towards Sheppard. "They'll live, if we help them."

"Escort our people through the gate," Sheppard replied and turned back to Young "We're here to rescue you and your men Colonel, my men will bring you to safety."

Young strode up to Sheppard and stood so close that Sheppard's barrel was pressed against his chest. "I will not leave while I still have men throughout the ship."

"That's not a request Colonel."

"What are you going to do? Shoot me?"

Sheppard's finger was already on the trigger and a quick squeeze sent Young falling to the floor. "Yes, if that is what is needed."

The other two men who had been sitting by the controls took the Colonel between them and followed the soldiers out of the bridge.

When everyone had left the bridge Sheppard pressed his com badge. "Radek come in."

-I'm here Sheppard, we're standing ready on this side.-

"Give me a minute and I will start the transfer." From one of the pockets on his combat vest he removed an Alterran transmitter which he placed connected to one of the consoles. "There we go."

-We have a stable connection Colonel.-

"Copy that."

-It will take us an hour or two to download the entire database once we start the transfer.-

"Copy that."

" **Well what's this sneaking around my ship?"** A large, tall man was towering in the doorway leading to the bridge. He was dressed in colorful garbs with golden inlays from head to toe.

"You think this is your ship? An old rustbucket sent out millions of years ago by the Alterra? This is not a ship belonging to Earth, this ship belongs to the Alterra who command us. So I would think us Lanteans have a little more claim than you have."

" **I am a god, no mere mortal from Earth. They do not deserve to be in control of a vessel as mighty and potent as this one."** His eyes flashed and glowed uncontrollably while he talked.

"Now why would we have a Goa'uld in control of this old rustbucket? The Earth nobility thinks to highly of themselves for that," Sheppard said while he weighed his options. Behind the Goa'uld hostile soldiers came marching.

" **I am a god, I wished for the ship and it was given to me."**

"Well we want it back so if you could just leave we would could all get along."

" **This is the eternal heaven, the divine knowledge found here can not leave. Therefore it is my godly orders that no one may leave."** Behind the Goa'uld the men raised their weapons and trained them on Sheppard.

"So who's going to kill who first?" Sheppard asked. "We both know that's the only way this will end."

" **I will not allow any further killing on this ship."** Without bothering with further discussion Sheppard raised his weapon and fired.


	20. Chapter 20

"Twenty four contacts straight ahead Ma'am," an officer reported the moment the ship left hyperspace.

"I see them," Sam responded from her control chair.

"We're being hailed."

On one of the forward viewports a man appeared. "You are intruding into space controlled by the Supreme Earth Nobility, prepare to be boarded."

"By the authority of the Alterra this solar system is considered a combat zone and we will act accordingly."

"The authority of the Alterra is not recognised h..."

A quick thought from Sam cut the channel and ordered of her four Retributors forward. Eight of the hostile 305s moved away from the larger fleet, straight towards them. When they came within firing distance the Retributors raised their main weapons through the plating and unleashed a barrage of plasma, another barrage followed shortly after and another after that. Before any missiles had been deployed the barrage reached the 305s and pulverised two of the ships. Then the second and third arrived and the eight ships were all destroyed.

"All ships advance at full speed," Sam ordered. Immediately the rest of her fleet, two Auroras and five upgraded generation ships, rushed forward to catch up with the Retributors which were already heading for the remaining 305s.

* * *

"Dr. Zelenka I'm getting some strange readings over here," a technician said. He was sitting at one of the consoles in Atlantis control room and at a nearby console Zelenka was sitting.

"What is it?"

"One of the Retributors have detected a wraith fleet heading for the Traveler home fleet."

"Our sensors are showing five wraith fleets in the quadrant around the Traveler home fleet. If they don't come within the quarantine zone we don't act. It is just like normal."

"Doctor, our sensors do not detect this wraith fleet, it's well within our detection range."

"We have two more sensor anomalies reported in Doctor," another technician said.

"You and you make sure that the transfer from Destiny is kept online," Zelenka ordered, pointing at two of the men. "Everyone else check the sensor data and sensor protocols."

"Move," a man shouted and shoved a technician across the room.

"Sorry, excuse us," another slightly fatter man said, coming after the first man from the gate room below. He gently moved another technician out of the way and turned to Zelenka. "I'm Eli Wallace and this is Dr. Nicholas Rush, we're happy to help." Together the two begun to work the consoles.

"What moron configured this?" Rush shouted.

"Retributors are picking up an increasing number of wraith fleets heading towards the quarantine zone Doctor Zelenka."

At his console Zelenka watched as the information coming from the Retributors was added into their own sensor readings. More and more wraith fleets and predicted headings showed up. When he pressed his com badge fourteen new fleets had been tagged near Retributors. "Colonel Sheppard, we have some problems. I think you need to come back here."

Down in the gate room people were still arriving through the gate from Destiny. Without warning Sheppard staggered through the gate with a body in tow. He was covered in blood stains from head to toe and fresh blood was coming from cuts across his body. Behind Sheppard four men came backing through the gate with their weapons still firing.

"Close the gate," one of the men said, just as Sheppard collapsed on the floor. "We need a medic over here."

Through the crowd gathering around Sheppard Beckett elbowed his way. He observed the Colonel for a few seconds before shouting up to the control room "Radek beam us to the infirmary."

"We have not run all the tests yet Doctor, it could be very dangerous," Zelenka objected

"Aye, but moving the Colonel by hand could be deadly." A few seconds later a white flash transported away Beckett and Sheppard.

"Sensors are back online Doctor," a technician reported.

In the gate room bellow security was starting to escort the personnel from Destiny into the city.

"What do you see?" Radek asked. With one of his hands he motioned for a security team towards Eli and Rush.

"What's this? We just helped you fix the sensors and now you're pointing your guns at us?" Eli asked.

"We're a security risk Eli," Rush said. "I guess they'll check for brainwashing and Goa'ulds before we're allowed to interact with the rest of the staff."

"If would you come with me Sir." The man addressing them were almost two heads higher than Rush. Silently the two were escorted away.

"Send a message to General O'Neill, we need to have the gate dialled back from here to Destiny," Zelenka ordered. "How is the sensors?"

"We're still tweaking them, but we're picking up wraith activity throughout the galaxy," the tech reported. "I believe that we should ready the fleet."

A swirl of foreign curses passed Zelenka's lips when he saw the readings. "Contact Mokar."

"Doctor, he asked not to be disturbed until he was finished," a tech responded.

"Then disturb him either way."

"Yes Doctor."

"Pull back all ships to guard the traveler home fleet. Warn the traveler home fleet."

In a flash of white light Mokar appeared next to Zelenka. "What is happening? I asked specifically not to be disturbed."

"The sensors are acting up."

"Is that all? You are the chief scientist here on Atlantis, I expected you to solve such things," Mokar said.

"We have already fixed the sensors. When…See for yourself," Zelenka said, pointing at the screen.

"I only see five small wraith fleets well away from any of our outposts."

"Do prdele přísavková," Zelenka cursed. "Restart the sensors again."

After half a minute three dozen new contacts showed on the sensors close to the traveler home fleet.

"Get the fleet in place now and warn the traveler home fleet," Mokar ordered.

"I have already done so according to Doctor Zelenka's orders," a tech reported.

"Doctor Zelenka, I expect you to have sorted out our sensors by the time I return."

"Yes yes yes, we will find the problem and eliminate it," Zelenka replied while working on the console.

"Where's Colonel Sheppard? I will need his assistance."

"He was injured on Destiny, when Carson got him to the infirmary he was barely alive."

"Beam me down there now." In a quick flash of light his surroundings changed from the control room to the medical bay.

"You need to stay down Colonel, the medical equipment is all that is keeping you alive. If you move too much you will die in a matter of minutes," Beckett yelled while he and four nurses tried to hold down Sheppard on one of the Alterran medical beds.

"He's here in Atlantis. I followed him through the gate back here, dragging one of our men with me."

"Who followed you Sheppard?" Mokar asked. A wave of his hand pressed Sheppard down on the bed telekinetically.

"A Goa'uld. He was in charge of Destiny. He tried to kill me when I started the transfer. He tried to shoot me but the shield protected me, then he drew a knife. It glowed orange and felt hot like fire when it cut through the shield. I managed to grab the knife and fight back, he fled after I cut him a few times. I chased after him through the ship until we reached the gate room, he must have had an extra knife hidden because he cut one of the guards, the man I carried with me, and rushed through before anyone could stop him. I need to find him before he hurts someone."

"I will take care of it Colonel, do not worry. How long will it take before he is back on his feet Doctor?"

"It will take at least a few hours before I will allow him to leave this bed," Beckett replied.

Mokar turned away and pressed his collar to activate the com badge. "Daniel can you hear me?"

-Yea what's up? We could use your help to solve a few problems we're having here.-

"We have a Goa'uld in the city. Find it and take care of the problem."

-I'm sorry but I'm not really a soldier. Don't we have soldiers for that?-

"You're the most senior staff member Daniel, you know the city inside out and you know the Goa'uld."

-Alright I'll take some men and chase him down.-

"Bring both Alterran and Tau'ri weapons Daniel."

-I'll deal with it.-

"Take care of him Doctor," Mokar said after turning of his com badge. A quick thought from him sent an activation command through the Alterran systems built into the city to the newly installed transport system. A split second later he was beamed away.

When the white flash disappeared he was in front of the active gate. "Take care of the city Doctor Zelenka, I want those sensors working properly when I come back."

"We will do what we can," Zelenka replied just as Mokar walked through the gate.

* * *

"Ma'am enemy reinforcement have crossed the blockade line. They are heading our way," an officer reported.

"Any threat to us?" Sam asked. She was still sitting in the control chair of the Aurora which was sitting just outside Earth's atmosphere.

"No Ma'am. They are no threat to us at this time but with enough numbers they could take out a few of our ships."

"Keep me posted if things change," Sam said. She left her control chair and walked towards the back of the bridge. "Take us down to the surface."

"Yes Ma'am." Almost immediately the ship begun to descend into the atmosphere while Sam walked through the corridors towards the back of the ship to where her soldiers waited for her.

When she entered the room almost fifty soldiers snapped into attention. "Colonel we're standing by for orders," an officer said.

"You know what to do Major Rutherford. Secure the perimeter within the shield when we land and set up a base," Sam replied.

"Yes ma'am."

* * *

-General O'Neill there's been complications on board Destiny. They have evacuated the entire ship,- a voice was heard through Jack's com badge.

"Copy that," Jack said into his com badge. "Alright people, we're moving out."

"What about stragglers Sir?" a soldier asked.

"I've already locked the gate, they're not leaving this planet before it blows."

"Yes Sir," the soldier replied.

In rapid order the ships begun to beam them away in small groups, finally Jack was beamed up together with his guards to the bridge of his Aurora.

"You're the last ones to be beamed up Sir," a bridge officer reported.

"Alright people let's get this party started," Jack said as he sat down in the control chair.

With a thought he linked up his ship with the rest of the fleet and marked the base on the planet. As one the ships begun to fire into the surface of the planet with each shot digging deeper and deeper into the naquadria rich crust. After almost half a minute of continuous firing the crust fractured and the fleet jumped to a safe distance to watch the fireworks.

* * *

When Mokar arrived through the gate six Asurans stood ready for him. " _A ship is standing ready to transport you."_

" _Thank you, set a course for the Traveler Home fleet. Jump away the moment I am on board the ship."_

" _It will be done."_ While Mokar's Alterran physiology allowed him to move faster and longer distances he had no chance to keep up with the Asurans when they begun to run towards the ship with Mokar himself following as fast as he could. By the time he arrived the ship's engines had already started and he had only set a foot on the ramp when it begun to retract into the ship, which rose quickly. It was a simple long distance scout but it would take him where he needed to go. Because of the ship's size the interior was a single large bridge filled with consoles to monitor the specialised sensory equipment the ship had installed. Along the sides of the bridge the Asurans were standing, their hands were melting through the walls so they could control the ship directly. As he walked towards the ship's controls in the front a clear thud was heard from behind when the hatch and ramp locked in place. On the forward screen a wireframe outline showed the supergate's position in front of them for a few seconds before the ship was hurled into hyperspace.


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: Here's the last chapter of this book. You will all have to wait a few weeks, maybe a few months, before I can finally finish up the next one. This is due to school and work. I hope that you enjoy this chapter and the tease at the end.

While her ship kept descending into Earth's atmosphere Sam's soldiers rushed around to double check and triple check their equipment. On her collar the com badge came to life. -Ma'am, we're touching down in twenty seconds.-

"Copy that, lower the ramps."

-Yes Ma'am.- In front of her the entire wall begun to move as huge pistons hidden inside the roof, walls and floor of the ship begun their work. First the entire wall moved outwards almost a meter and through the gaps wind founds its way. Then the upper part of the wall slowly swung down and revealed a bright red sky. On both sides of the ship the ramps kept opening until they were horizontal and the soldiers surged forward. Along the sides of the ramp a railing rose and at the end of the ramp the soldiers locked metal plates into vertical position for extra cover.

-Touching down in five seconds.-

Outside the shield tanks and anti-air cannons fired as best they could towards them and the other Aurora which was descending beside them. Each round fired towards them made the shield flare up for a second like small red flowers. Systematically the two ships picked of their attackers with their turrets while the soldiers on the ramps did what they could to help.

-We have touched down Ma'am.-

With the ships securely on solid ground the ramps lowered further and further until they touched the ground and the plates locked in place before dropped down to ease the disembarking. As the men marched of the ships the two ship's shields widened and merged to form a single shield between them. Above them three of the generation ships hovered and fired at targets in the distance.

"Base camp is secured, send out the Asurans."

-Yes Ma'am- a man replied. A few seconds later a number of Asurans marched of the ships with large and heavy crates in tow. Once on the ground some of the Asurans opened up the crates and begun to filter the materials inside through their bodies into building blocks while the others returned for more crates.

* * *

-This is Mokar, I'm on my way to the Traveler home fleet. What is your status?- Mokar's voice sounded through Larrin's com badge.

"The wraith fleets are holding their positions. More of our ships are on the way here right now to help but they're half a galaxy away. We will hold out until they arrive," she replied. Outside the ship the Traveler home fleet was sitting dead in space, through windows people could be seen moving about but very little power was running through the ships that were merged together.

-Do not risk our ships Larrin, they may be your people but they rely on bulkheads and armour to keep them safe. The wraith will only need darts to penetrate your defenses and board your fleet. We can not risk losing ships in this fight Larrin, we can not win here.-

"These are my people, I can not abandon them just like that." She had just finished her sentence when an alarm sounded on the bridge.

"Captain, the wraith fleets have entered hyperspace. They will arrived shortly" someone on the bridge shouted. "The Council are asking why you have gathered such a large fleet here Captain."

-Just remember this Captain Larrin, sometime people will have to die. I will arrive to help you coordinate the fleet soon. I hope you have activated the repaired ships within your home fleet by the time I arrive or many will die this day- Mokar said and closed the channel.

"Open a channel to the Council."

"Yes Captain." A moment later the forward viewscreen changed to show more than twenty small images of the captains on the Council.

-Why have you gathered Alterran ships of war here Captain Larrin? Have they finally come to take the rest of our people?- an old female captain asked -How ironic that they have sent you here.-

"The wraith are coming. We are here to protect the home fleet for as long as we can while you evacuate our people."

-There is nothing to support your claims Captain Larrin. We only see a fleet of Alterran warships here. There is no danger from the wraith- one of the younger Captains said.

"The wraith have hunted us for hundreds of years. Now when they come here you refuse to accept it. The Alterra have done nothing but trade fairly and in our favor. They are not the enemy. The Alterra have fitted some of the ships in the home fleet with new shields and hyperdrives on my request. I suggest that you get to these ships if you want to live."

-You will take your fleet and leave now Captain- the old woman said.

Before Larrin could respond six hives and twelve cruisers left hyperspace right outside the perimeter the Alterran ships had formed around the home fleet. Even before fully emerging from hyperspace the wraith fleet fired their weapons. Immediately some of the captains' transmissions cut out, others' images froze on their dying faces as their ships exploded and shrapnel tore through them and the home fleet. As quickly as they could the Alterran ships returned fire along with what ships the Travelers had.

"Broadcast on all channels" Larrin ordered. "This is Captain Larrin. Evacuate the home fleet. All emergency ships are ordered leave for rally points."

From subspace ten additional hives and over thirty cruisers emerged and began to bombard them from the other side. Within seconds the home fleet began to break up into huge chunks which drifted apart and broke up into smaller pieces when internal explosions tore them apart. Somewhere to the port side a Retributor was torn apart when some of the hives ganged up on it. Close after another followed.

After a few minutes shields began to form throughout the debris field and several dozen ships, large and small, broke free from the rest of the debris and quickly jumped away one by one.

With the last of the emergency ships escaping from the slaughter the Alterran ships turned around and retreated one by one.

* * *

"Report" Mokar said. His ship had just arrived at the home fleet or rather where it should have been, but there was nothing, absolutely nothing, to suggest that it had ever been there. He had been watching a sensor feed coming directly from the battle and knew there should have been debris floating around.

"We have arrived at the correct coordinates. Full sensor sweeps detect nothing. A minimum of eight hundred tons of debris should be expected even after a standard Alterran clean up. Debris profile matches debris profiles found after battles between the Lanteans and the wraith. Reports do not indicate if it were Lantean or wraith clean ups. Chances that deeper scans will detect anything is minimal" the replicators said as one.

"Run all deeper scans this ship has the equipment for. Scan the first six lower dimensions and the first two upper as well. Finally scan the deeper regions of subspace for hyperspace activity, both coming and going. I want to know what happened here."

"This ship is a scout. It is not equipped to scan other dimensions. Additional resources will be needed, Atlantis long range sensors could be used."

"Begin with the rest, I will connect this ship to Atlantis' sensors" Mokar said as he begun to tie all sensor data from Atlantis into their own scans.

A minute passed while several green, yellow and red lines were drawn out into space. "Please confirm that only wraith, Lantean and Alterran hyperdrives were used."

"That is correct."

Outside one of the green lines turned blue. "Anomalous hyperdrive signature detected. Possibly Asgard origin."

"It's possible one of our 304s flew through here earlier to deliver parts for Larrin and Sheppard's project."

"Probability is minimal. The hyperdrive signature is fresh and the surviving 304 has been undergoing repairs at Atlantis. Atlantis' sensors do not indicate any temporal distortions or spacial fractures to suggest that any ships of the 304 class have arrived here from other realities or through time. In addition a 304 is too small to leave an imprint of this size."

"Use the raw data from Atlantis to track the ship."

"The ship has left Atlantis' sensor range. Using additional sensor points may allow for tracking."

"Connect to whatever sensors we have in that direction and map out the ship's path. Meanwhile set a course after the ship and summon what ships we can spare to join us."

Immediately the ship spun around and aligned with the blue line, then it jumped into hyperspace. "A single Aurora has been dispatched from Athyl to assist, its weapons have not been installed yet but it has upgraded sensors. Eight Retributors have been diverted to our location, four of which are manned by Asurans due to their lack of life support systems and artificial gravity. They will rendezvous with us."

* * *

 **One week after Mokar's transformation**

A large group of well armed Jaffa came rushing into the newly constructed council chamber on Dakara that was to be the center of the new Free Jaffa Nation capital. "What is the meaning of this?" Bra'tac asked.

"It is apparent that again the council have made someone angry," Teal'c replied. He was sitting next to Bra'tac around the council's table. His right hand was trailing the underside of the table and found the button that would activate the defenses. Instead of the shield rising around the council, automated turrets deploying from inside the walls and guards storming in he received a shock that sent him flying when he pressed the button.

From the shadows behind some pillars a man stepped out. He was dressed in finely cut silk and wore the golden hand devices of the Goa'uld. "Teal'c, I would have warned you. But then you just showed the rest of the council what happens if you try to go against me." Three of the other councilors stood up and bowed to the man. "Master Enad has sent me to inform you that the council is no longer necessary and will be disbanded."

"It will be as he commands," Yat'yir said.

"Disbanding the council would require a unified vote of the council or the Jaffa," Rak'nor roared. He was sitting opposite of Bra'tac and just had time to stand up when an invisible force threw him head first across the room to where Teal'c was getting back on his feet.6

"Anyone who does not vote in favor will be killed."

"Then you will have to kill me too," Bra'tac said and stood up.

Out of sight Teal'c had taken cover behind one of the pillars and made a dash for the pedestals sitting along the wall. On them trinkets, trophies and gifts were on display. The Jaffa that had marched into the council chamber saw him and opened fire with their staffs but the pillars gave him cover. He managed to grab the anti-Prior device, a gift from Earth, and returned to the cover of the pillars. Quickly he activated it and smashed the display stand into a thousand pieces against the floor. As he crushed the display stand the MP7 hidden inside it slid across the floor and he lunged forward to grab it. Where he was slumped towards a pillar Rak'nor saw the gun sliding towards him and reached out to grab it. With clasping fingers he aimed the weapon at the rushing Jaffa and fired at them. Taken with surprise most of the Jaffa fell before they had a chance to act, then they turned their staffs towards him. Seeing his chance Bra'tac tackled the closest soldier and grabbed his staff weapon before running to Teal'c's side. From another entrance a group of Jaffa stormed in to defend the council. With their attackers otherwise occupied Teal'c and Bra'tac hurried to a side entrance. They had almost reached the door when the entire wall exploded and they were blown back onto the council table. With the council chamber falling apart around them they rushed to get away.

Outside there was absolute chaos, from motherships in orbit a steady rain of destruction fell while gliders and Al'kesh dominated the sky. From the hill the council chamber was built on they could see a large army surging forward from the plains beyond the city below towards them and the city.

"Come Teal'c, we must find a ship."

"You would flee now old man? We need to lead the defense of the city or our dream of a free Jaffa nation will be taken away."

"Look down there Teal'c. We do not have the men to defend the city against an army like that, we must escape to fight another day." As Bra'tac led Teal'c toward the outskirts of the city he saw Teal'c's side getting wet and the sand behind them turning dark red. "You are in no condition to fight Teal'c."

"If we leave now we abandon all hope for the Jaffa."

"We have carried the hope of freedom for the Jaffa on our shoulders for many years Teal'c. If we fail here today we will come again. As we always have, stronger each time." Around them the city exploded into pieces while they hurried down the streets.

"I only hope you are right old man."

"Come here," Bra'tac said after blasting a door to pieces with the staff weapon. With a kick he cleared away the pieces left in the doorway and stepped inside the house. Right inside the door a Tel'tak waited for them. "We must reach Earth, the Tau'ri have always helped us."

"My GDO is damaged. They will not let us through the gate."

"Then we will take this ship." Bra'tac had already reached the controls and powered up the shield. As the ship rose it thore through the roof. "I've set a course to Earth, it will take us a few days but I have plenty of supplies on board."

In the back the rings activated without warning and zat bolts came flying when the rings returned to the floor. From the cargo compartment a Jaffa strode and kept firing towards the central console which Bra'tac had taken cover behind, but Teal'c, who was slowed down by his injury, was right next to the door. He punched him in the throat and drove him backwards. With his powerful arms Teal'c grabbed the Jaffa and threw him backwards into the cargo hold. Tumbling around the Jaffa hit one of the braces and collapsed, but before Teal'c had a chance to finish him he was back up and charged Teal'c with a knife in hand. Blocking and dodging backwards Teal'c was driven back into the cockpit where Bra'tac waited with the staff weapon. Before he had a chance to fire the Jaffa feigned a slash towards Teal'c before diving towards Bra'tac and slicing him across his lower arm, but Teal'c had seen through the feignt and locked his arms around the Jaffa. With all his power Teal'c lifted up the Jaffa and crushed the Jaffa in his arms. An explosion threw all three to the floor. Quickly they all tried to get back on their feet and the other Jaffa was first, but only moments later Teal'c was up too and dove towards him. This time the Jaffa was ready and allowed Teal'c to grab him, only to drive the knife into his body and diving backwards. With the force of the fall the Jaffa drove the knife even deeper into Teal'c's body.

"The rings," Teal'c groaned. Both he and the other Jaffa was lying inside the rings and the later was squirming in his arms, each second the knife cut deeper and deeper into him.

"There is no way to know where you would be sent," Bra'tac said. He was moving towards the two fighters.

"Indeed."

Before Bra'tac had a chance to do anything the rings activated and the two vanished, in their place were four Jaffa. Quickly Bra'tac sidestepped to avoid the staff blasts and activated the rings from the panel. A sharp pain spread through his body as the rings activated and as he looked at his injured hand with mistrust the head of a Jaffa came rolling from the cargo hold.

With stumbling steps he hurried forward to the pilot's chair. He just managed to sit down when a hyperspace window formed in front of the ship. Placing his working hand on the side of the controls which had not been destroyed by the blast he tried to change course but nothing responded to his commands. Instead he saw the estimated time to Earth increasing from days to weeks and finally to months. On the ship was plenty of supplies and he would survive, of that he was sure.


End file.
